Fact-Checking the Torah -- Segue from Olrik to Polti: FOR WRITERS

Georges Polti wrote a book in 1868, giving a list of 36 dramatic situations or plots. You can see it free at Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/thirtysixdramati00polt

He gives examples of the situations. He drew many of them from Greek tragedy, but he also included literature up to and including Dostoevsky. To cover important literature that did not perfectly fit his broad categories, Polti gives subcategories. 

This book illustrates a couple of points.

There are no “original ideas”. Writers may produce novel presentations, and movies may take advantage of new technology with the same goal, but the situations they present are limited to these 36. Test it for yourself with a random selection of 36 books. Then do it with some of the top-selling books this century. Let us know what you find.

Second, Polti’s examples come from literature going back thousands of years, including the Tanakh, the roots of which go back at least to 5000 BCE, before the Semites and Indo-Europeans or Indo-Iranians differentiated out of the parent culture that produced the flood stories in all three traditions. As such, at least some of these situations existed in oral traditions – necessarily oral because this goes back before the origin of writing. The situations that get us interested in a book or movie or manga, are the same ones that got our ancestors interested enough in a story to pass it down, some of them for thousands of years. These are the truly shared concepts of the human mind. Compare them to the oral tradition of your own culture.

Polti has references to historical events as examples of the situations. This reinforces Olrik’s statement that orally transmitted narratives originate as realistic descriptions of cultural or historical events. Polti refers to written material in every case, but identifies another facet of the link between oral and written material.

I forget how I came across Polti, but I used it in a novel and wrote about it as an appendix to a series of possible posts about how to use Olrik's principles to write Regency romances. It reinforces that modern literature, including film which I keep saying is oral literature, relates to our most ancient favorites told around campfires as long as humans have told stories. If you're interested in the details, let me know.

I'm just saying -- FELLOW WRITERS

So I thought I would try out some modern Regency fiction, and it's possible to borrow some at Internet Archive. Well.

I have bad memories of the only Harlequin novel I read back in the Stone Age, and the one I read on Internet Archive is the same thing. Literally. All the modern attitudes, with just some famous names from Austen stuck in.

I know some of you don't mind that. 

If you're like me, that's not good enough. You can find all of Austen, Edgeworth, Radcliffe, and Ferrier on Internet Archive, along with Mary Brunton and the "memoirs" of Perdita and courtesan Harriot Wilson. You owe it to yourself to read them. Georgette Heyer's novels won't hurt; they were written in the 20th century, but Heyer grew up in the pre-war milieu and understood her foremothers-in-writing better than we can now.

You can also find the sermons of Blair and Porteus, which you can use for your clergy, as well as the famous Fordyce's Sermons to Young Women, both volumes.

And of course Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, and Scott's Marmion and Lady of the Lake -- and Thomson and Cowper, so often referred to in Austen. Mrs. Hemans was a wife and mother to five sons. Her poetry used similar subjects to Byron's, was expressed almost as passionately, was more approved and popular for longer, well into the Victorian period, and influenced women poets for decades. She wrote "The boy stood on the burning deck," a favorite declamation for over a century, and coined the phrase "the stately homes of England" paraphrased by Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant.

Did you know that Frankenstein was published in the Regency period? And a novel by Byron's friend Polidori, the first Vampire novel ever?

And you can find most of the Northanger novels:

Clermont 1: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_clermont-a-tale-in-fou_roche-regina-maria_1798_1

2: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_clermont-a-tale-in-fou_roche-regina-maria_1798_2

3: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_clermont-a-tale-in-fou_roche-regina-maria_1798_3

4: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_clermont-a-tale-in-fou_roche-regina-maria_1798_4

The Mysterious Warning 1: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-mysterious-warning-_parsons-mrs-eliza_1796_1

2: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-mysterious-warning-_parsons-mrs-eliza_1796_2

3: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-mysterious-warning-_parsons-mrs-eliza_1796_3

4: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-mysterious-warning-_parsons-mrs-eliza_1796_4

The Castle of Wolfenbach: https://archive.org/details/the-castle-of-wolfenbach-eliza-parsons

The Necromancer, volume 1: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-necromancer-or-the-_kahlert-karl-friedrich_1794_1

2: https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-necromancer-or-the-_kahlert-karl-friedrich_1794_2/page/n1/mode/2up

The Orphan of the Rhine: https://archive.org/details/theorphanoftherhine/page/n1/mode/2up

The Midnight Bell: https://archive.org/details/midnightbell0000lath

(You can't download this one, you'll have to borrow it.)

The seventh novel, Horrid Mysteries, is not available online complete, except one place where you can find it with a web search. Or try Valancourt Press, they offer it for sale.

Get out your favorite Austen books, go on Internet Archive, and search for their titles or authors. Eliza Parsons was a voluminous writer, having children to support. Reading more contemporary novels will make your Regency writing better -- if you think carefully about the differences between the authors' and characters' lives and how we live now, then do the research to fill in the gaps so your readers also understand.

I just discovered one of the best resources ever, The New British Traveller, by James Dugdale. First printed about 1789, it was reprinted in the early 1800s as a number of pamphlets. The unsold ones were bound together, with an added preface and introduction, in 1819. If you want realistic portrayals of the shires in your writing, you must download this from Internet Archive and study it.

Volume 1: https://archive.org/details/newbritishtravel01dugd

Volume 2: https://archive.org/details/newbritishtravel02dugduoft

Volume 3: https://archive.org/details/newbritishtravel03dugduoft

Volume 4: https://archive.org/details/newbritishtravel04dugduoft

Along with the 1816 edition of Debrett's peerage, volume 1 being England and volume 2 being Scotland and Ireland.

Volume 1: https://archive.org/details/debrettspeerage07debrgoog/page/n7/mode/2up

Volume 2: https://archive.org/details/debrettspeerage04debrgoog/page/n5/mode/2up

and an 1819 edition of the baronetage, knightage and companionage

https://archive.org/details/debrettsbaroneta14unse

So that if you plan to include real people in your writing, you can at least name their county and seat correctly, let alone give the pedigree and whatever other information you need for your story.

You can also find floor plans for Regency buildings online. The novel I read talked of lobbies in inns. In the Regency period, even the Royal York Hotel in Bath did not have a lobby. The doorman let you in to a hall large enough for a sedan chair, which would have protected customers and their guests on rainy days. You went to the concierge's desk and explained your business, and were seen up to your rooms where your luggage, sent ahead in a separate coach, had already been bestowed and was unpacking at the hands of your man or maid. There were breakfast rooms and coffee rooms and dining rooms. But at an inn, you went through the door into the taproom, where the landlord and landlady took care of you. 

Then there are the attitudes. When a woman vowed to love, honour and obey, everybody expected her to obey -- whatever it was she meant by love and honour. The only cash she had, her husband put into her hands. The only financing she got, was to have her modiste and other vendors send their bills to her husband. Many girls and some women had no idea of the cost of things, for this was pretty much how things worked before they married, only their fathers instead of their husbands overlooked the bills and paid them -- and then gave a thundering scold if they were too high. 

A man had all rights over his wife. It was not until the reign of Queen Victoria that a woman could even have custody of her children, and then it arose from a court case where the wife could prove abuse. Richard Sheridan's granddaughter Caroline Norton became a woman's rights advocate.

Read up on her life, and also that of Catherine Tylney-Long, the mega-heiress whose husband only wanted her money. He bankrupted her, got a royal appointment to make himself immune to arrest for debt, but eventually fled Britain. He remained a "man of honour" to the end of his life, despite despoiling his wife, physically abusing her, and giving her a venereal disease.

Most Regency marriages fell between these two extremes -- but it was a matter of degree, not of kind. 

It was a different world. Your audience deserves to see the real world of the Regency if you're going to set your novel in the Regency period.

I'm just saying...

DIY -- mice

I put this on the DIY thread because it's intended to help you keep mice out or, if you have them, do something other than have an exterminator bring poisons into your house.

But you will kill mice using my plan. If you had the plague I had, live traps mean almost daily trips to take the mice away from your house. Where they can get into somebody else's house.

Preventative measures.

PUT ALL FOOD IN STURDY CONTAINERS WITH TIGHT-FITTING LIDS. Mice chew through cardboard in case there's something edible inside. They also chew through plastic re-sealable bags and duck tape. This means re-packaging things as soon as you get back from the grocery store or take delivery on specialty products. When you repackage spices and herbs, cut off the label that says what it is and put it in the container so you don't get cayenne when you want paprika or cloves. Oddly enough, while I have had mice chew into flour bags, they have ignored sugar and mylar bags. DON'T COUNT ON THAT. There are plenty of BPA-free heavy plastic storage sets that will help with this, aside from the typical kitchen canister sets. I bought a 24-piece set and could use a few more pieces, except see the next paragraph.

BUY STORAGE UNITS WITH NO AIR GAPS. I mean it. NONE. Mice can get through holes the size of a dime. Rebrilliant has stackable storage on wheels, with tightly fitting doors. You can easily move them to a closet once filled. They come flattened and take about 2 minutes to assemble, requiring no tools but occasionally a hefty slap with your hand. You can also take the lid off to put in and take out large things. You must make sure the lid is properly seated when you put it back on. I have 11 of these, filled with freeze-dried veggies, jerky, baking supplies, herbs and spices, medicinals, dried fruit, snacks and shelf-safe things like unopened condiments.

UNTIL YOU HAVE THE RIGHT STORAGE, use your refrigerator as a stop-gap, in two ways. One, of course, is that mice can't get inside it. The other is to put things on top of it. I keep flour inside my refrigerator so I have a couple of spare bags handy at a time, but I put party-size chips, goldfish and pretzels on top, including after I have opened the bag and used a clothes-pin to keep the food fresh.

COLLAPSE ALL CARDBOARD BOXES AND PUT OUT WITH THE TRASH. This includes boxes in which project items were shipped to you. I'm a serious knitter and I had to sacrifice some leftover yarn (and if you read my knitting thread you KNOW there's no such thing as useless leftovers) because mice nested in the boxes.

GET RID OF STYROFOAM. Mice will chew it into soft little pellets for nesting. Your town may have collection days for safe disposal. They are literally always on a day I can't get to them so once or twice a year I send styrofoam out with Got Junk. I also know which of my vendors tend to use styrofoam and limit how much I buy from them.

Now to deal with the infestation.

CLEAN UP. Any time you see the evidence of mice, clean that area. Wash it down with kitchen grade vinegar (5%, not the 10% sold at garden stores for weed control) or buy some Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap in peppermint scent. Wash with that. Also put about a quarter cup in a spray bottle, fill with water, and spray carpets and floors. Mice hate the smell. They also hate cinnamon, but if you have a bad infestation you'll put cinnamon in so many places, the house will look unclean. Try Humphrey's Handmade or Adam's cinnamon scent castile soap, or use the recipe on Dr. Bronner's site for adding cinnamon scent to their unscented soap. You will never waste castile soap, you can use it for almost everything. I have a post about that.

BUY TRAPS. Do not buy glue traps, I have known mice to work their way out of them. See above about live traps. Buy snap traps. Place them where you see mice debris, such as nesting preparations. After a couple of days, bait and set them. Keep traps in stock. Even if you get rid of mice one year, they will return a few years later.

Put traps on top of every place where you clean away nesting materials. 

Put them everywhere you find mouse "debris" whether it's hair or not. 

If you see mice skitter across the floor, don't go after them with a broom: watch where they go and put a trap there. 

Set a trap in the doorway and close the door to a room so the mouse can't get into or out of the room without going over the trap.

Lay a line of traps across an entry with no doors, or use your storage to block most of it and then lay up to 8 traps across the rest. Face half of them each way. I used this to control mouse access to my kitchen; it was extremely successful.

If you booby-trap a wall, line up three traps with the bait side against the wall. The mouse might get past the outside traps but the center one will work.

If mice get into a closet, put two traps on the inside of the door, one facing each way. Also watch for them to chew alternative entrances and booby-trap those. Once you catch them, clear everything out of the closet and wash it down with castile soap, then set new booby-traps in case the mice are not getting into the closet from inside your house. 

REARRANGE YOUR HOUSE. Mice can climb, and they will climb on top of something and then jump to where they think they will find food. Do not leave paths from floor to cabinet tops or buffets. For example, I tore apart my kitchen for remodeling and let a tension rod rest on the floor, leaning against a chair. The mice climbed the rod, and leapt from the chair onto boxes they wanted to explore. They also climbed up into a closet and chewed through the plastic of bags of comfrey and chickweed leaves and used the leaves for bedding. Wash down the legs of furniture with the scented castile soap.

SEE IF THERE ARE GAPS YOU CAN SEAL. You'll need a professional for this and that's why it's last: this is not DIY and it will cost you. If mice can get to plumbing, they will get into your house. If there's a gap around your dryer vent, mice can get into your house. 

That said, some mice seem to be tougher than others. Most of the mice in my traps are gray house mice; they seem to be pretty naive. The smaller brown field mice are more wary of traps and their size makes it easier for them to find hidy holes.

If you're asking yourself why I didn't recommend getting a cat -- well, there are people who should never have the care of animals. There are also people who have enough work and expenses caring for kids or the elderly; a cat also needs care and attention. There are allergies; a young relative of mine loves cats but allergy shots did not help her. Cats are not mouse-catching machines; you do not buy them until the mice are gone and then just send them to a shelter or abandon them. They have feelings -- feelings of loss and abandonment and depression. So unless you can make a commitment to the physical and emotional well-being of a cat, don't get one because you have mice.

I know this sounds like a war, but it is. I live in the northeast and my chances of hantavirus are not large -- but they are not zero. Also, it's mice not deer that carry the ticks that spread Lyme disease. Mice leave a definite funk in the air and I have a sensitivity to odors. I also had bronchitis the other year due to mold in the kitchen (causing the renovation) and it took nine months to get over. If mice can get in, mold can get in; so can mildew. Both can be hazardous to your health. This is a war you have to win if at all possible.

Fact-Checking the Torah -- turn it over and over

I was today years old when I learned that there was a Yiddish Arthurian tradition at the end of the 1700s, during Rebbe Schneur Zalman of Lyady's life.

The paper on it is here with an English translation.

https://www.pdx.edu/judaic-studies/sites/judaicstudies.web.wdt.pdx.edu/files/2021-03/OehmeArthuriana30.2.pdf

The book referenced is on Internet Archive (natch)

Belehrung der Jüdisch-Teutschen Red- und Schreibart 

Eyn Shon Meyse starts on page 251 (Adobe page), page 157 of the print edition, in side by side Yiddish and German.

I was writing about something quite different and my brain jumped sideways and I followed it with a google search. Always follow where your brain leaps to.

The Internet is like a box of chocolates....

Fact-Checking the Torah -- ancient literature and the lies that bigots wrote

This post will let you get your revenge on every Victorian bigot who ever wrote lies about the literature that is the basis of your culture. It will take a lot of work, but it will be worth it. If you post about it online, send me a link. I may already know the answer but, then again, I may not.

Every once in a while it occurs to me to search Internet Archive for great books. Today I found two. One was Judy Brittain's book on needle crafts, which I bought decades ago and learned crochet and knitting from.

The other is Axel Olrik's Principles for Oral Narrative Research in English.

https://archive.org/details/principles-for-oral-narrative-research

If you are part of a culture with a fundamental ancient literature, it will pay you big-time to read Olrik slowly and then compare it to your texts or scriptures. If you find examples of what Olrik says in your literature, you can be pretty sure the material originated orally, because before he wrote his work, nobody analyzed oral literature for its fundamental qualities. Even the Grimm brothers merely collected oral narratives, they did not analyze them. 

Then you can do what I did: go back through every academic work that ever pissed you off because it took a bigoted Victorian attitude toward non-Christian literature. Write up how wrong the authors were -- and mind you, NAME NAMES -- and post a thread on your blog, or on substack, or whereever you publish. 

You should also read Dr. John Cook's dissertation on Biblical Hebrew. When I found that he had identified a grammatical equivalent of one of the features Olrik describes, THAT made me buy in to what Cook wrote and THAT is why I said all over my blog that you will never know what Torah really says unless you understand Biblical Hebrew as a different animal than Mishnaic or Modern Hebrew.

https://ancienthebrewgrammar.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/cook-2002_bhvs_uwdiss.pdf

If you want the short version, you can start reading my blog here.

http://pajheil.blogspot.com/2018/03/fact-checking-torah-beyond-dh.html

and the verse by verse analysis here.

https://pajheil.blogspot.com/p/21st-century-bible-hebrew-basic-terms.html

But you will do yourself a huge favor if you do the homework yourself after downloading the book from Internet Archive. If you write a blog thread about it, whether you're examining the Mahabharata (which I have gone through and it does have examples matching Olrik's discussion) or the Popol Vuh (same). 

Knitting -- pullover, last time, I promise

So over the last 2 years I've learned some new techniques and YOU get the benefit of them without having to evaluate a hundred different Youtube videos.

This is for a long-sleeved worsted (DK/sport) [fingering] jumper, knitted bottom up, in a woolen yarn. 

You need size 7 (5) [3] circular needles in two tether sizes, 24 for the body and 16 for the neck and upper sleeves. 

You also want DP needles in size 7 (5) [3] for the cuffs and lower part of the sleeves. Some patterns call for 6 (4) but let's not fuss with that.

It takes me 1430 yards of yarn for a long-sleeved pullover that fits my 40 inch chest and 21 inch arms. This amount allows for steeking and for a mid-back elevation. You may need less but, remember, if you overbuy you can make matching socks.

Do some math to see what stitch counts are right for you. The paper sleeve of the yarn hank or ball should give a number of stitches on a specific needle size and tell you how many inches that is. Even if you need fewer stitches when you cast on for your hem rib, you might need more rounds in the body under the arms (my back is about an inch shorter than usual for my height). You can always knit a 30 x 30 swatch to make sure your particular yarn will work out the way you want.

You may need three weeks to a month to finish this, depending on how experienced you are as a knitter and how much else is going on in your life. But the sky is the limit for how many colors there are to choose from; there are also hand-painted yarns which are multi-colored, and tweeded and beaded yarns.

If you buy hanks of yarn, wind at least two of them into one ball apiece. You will have to stop from time to time and wind more hanks into balls; it takes far less time than trying to untangle the hank as you work. Don't avoid hank yarn; there are too many nice ones out there.

Tie the ends of the two balls together with a square knot, leave a couple of inches of raw ends; you will tuck this loose yarn in during the first round of the bottom rib.

Make a slip knot near this square knot and put it on the end of your 24 inch circular needle. Now use the long-tail (slingshot) cast-on for 200 (260) [280] stitches. If you want to get straight to the goodies, go to 2:20.

I know that this cast-on seems complicated but a) it gives you a nice edge b) I find it easier to keep track of how many stitches I cast on and c) if you have a pattern that calls for a provisional cast-on, this is how you do it. 

Now make sure the stitches aren't twisted. Make sure the last five or six stitches are tight on the needle (you'll loosen them later) with the loops around the TOP and the connectors between the loops on the BOTTOM. Holding the last stitches firmly, work around to the other end of the needle making sure all the loops are on the TOP. 

Now you can start knitting the rib. Cut one of the balls of yarn off two or three inches from the end of the needle with the last stitches. Slip the last stitch on the other needle to the needle with the yarn ends, pass last stitch on that needle over, move the stitch back to the left needle, and knit it. This makes a smooth line at the join and prevents gaps. You'll use this technique again later. Drape a yarn marker before this first knitted stitch. I often put a slip knot in this marker so I know when I'm starting a new round.

In worsted, unless you are working an Iceland pattern, you will K the next stitch, then P2/K2 around, putting markers at the center front, other side (armpit), and center back stitches (worsted 50/100/150, DK/sport 65/130/195, fingering 70/140/210). For the first 6 to 8 knit stitches in the rib, thread the loose yarn ends into it. 

For all others, P the next stitch then K1/P1 around putting markers as shown.

Work ribbing for 6 (8) [10] rounds and switch to knitting, flipping the marker yarns over the top when you get to them. This shows where you started knitting. Knit around for 100 (110) [120] rounds. Every 10 rounds of knitting, flip the marker yarn to the inside or outside. It will save time in checking whether you are at the marker, and it will help you count rounds.

I highly recommend Irish cottage or pit knitting for the body. a) You are better off not looking at your fingers while you work it, so you can watch TV or a movie. b) It works fast. c) It is less likely to cause tendonitis than the English hold, but the Continental or Norwegian hold also helps with this.

When you come to the end of a ball of yarn, stop 2-3 inches before the end. Start the next knit stitch and when you have wrapped the yarn around the needle, wrap the end of a new ball of yarn on top of it and pull through for a doubled stitch. Keep this up until all the yarn of the old ball has been used, and continue on. This is a join. Once you finish and wash and block your jumper, you'll never notice it.

On the last round stop 5 (6) [7] stitches before the underarm marker. Put the next 10 (12) [14] stitches on a holder. You are now going to cable on stitches for the steeking. Turn your work as if you were going to purl. Put the working needle between the last two stitches, pick the yarn, pull through, and put on the end of the non-working needle. Add 11 (13) [15] stitches. Turn your work back. Slip the first stitch on the body to the working needle, pull the last cable-on over it, pull the yarn snug and put the stitch back. Do the same thing at the other under-arm halfway around. Run a marker yarn up the center of the steeking. You will later cut along this marker. I find it easier to pick up cable-ons than thumb cast-ons.

Steeking ONLY works in woolen yarn because it hackles as you wash and wear, and this keeps the cut yarn in the middle of the steeking from unraveling. If you are using a blend or cotton or linen, you want to work faux set in sleeves.

Continue knitting around for 43 (53) [57] rounds.

Work your midback elevation which will let the hem sit parallel to the floor as follows:

K around to the center back marker and 14 stitches beyond it. Bring the yarn to the front, slip the next stitch, put the yarn to the back, return that stitch to its needle (a wrap), turn.

P 28 stitches, bring the yarn to the back, slip the next stitch, bring the yarn to the front, return that stitch to its needle (a wrap), turn.

K 47, wrap, turn.

P 66, wrap, turn.

K 85, wrap, turn.

P 94, wrap, turn.

K one round.

Knit to the middle of the steeking. Knit together at the shoulders as follows; turn the top inside out. Using one of your DPs, pick up one stitch in front and one in back, and knit together. Do this again and pass the last stitch over leaving one on the needle. 

When you have done the pass-stitch-over 23 (27) [30] times, turn the top right-side out and put the last stitch on the right-hand needle. Pass the next stitch on that needle over it and put it back on the left needle. Knit that stitch. This will help close a gap.

Switching to the 16 inch circular needle, knit around to the middle of the other steeking, turn it inside out and knit together 23 (27) [30] stitches. Do the same PSSO maneuver.

Knit around to the other shoulder. There will be a long stitch on top; put your needle under that stitch NOT through it, and knit. This will close up part of the gap. If it still looks too big, pick up and knit the next stitch before the one on your non-working needle. You can come back later and fill in with duplicate stitch.

Work ribbing to the other shoulder, the same as the hem (either K2/P2 or K1/P1), close the gap up the same way, and continue in rib. 

Work neck ribbing for the same number of rows as the hem. Now start a new round of rib, but pull the previous stitch over each new stitch to bind off in rib. 

When you finish, pull a loop of yarn through the last stitch, tighten it, and cut leaving at least three inches of raw end. Using a darning needle, work this end into the top of the first stitch of ribbing to make a smooth join. Poke it through the next stitch down, weave into the inside of the ribbing, knot and cut, leaving about one inch.

Now pick up stitches for the sleeves as follows: 

Using your 16 inch circular needle, knit the 10 (12) [14] underarm stitches from the holder and let this working yarn fall to the inside. Run a marker yarn on each side of the steeking middle marker, 5 (6) [7] stitches to the front and back sides.

Cut the steeking up the middle, taking the marker out as you go. Now using your crochet hook, insert it from outside to inside in the first stitch after the underarm. Pull the working yarn through to the front and put it on your circular needle. Pick up every stitch along the marker, front and back, including one through the shoulder seam.

When you get back to the underarm, slip the first underarm stitch to the right-hand needle, pass the last body stitch over, put it back, and knit it. Knit across the underarm, slip the first body stitch to the needle, pass the last underarm stitch over, put it back, and knit it. This will close up part of the gap that usually develops here. Later you can use duplicate stitch to close up any loose stitches.

Run a marker stitch from the middle of the underarm; usually I pull the "seam" marker below the underarm for this. Count how many stitches you have around. It should be 97 (121) [129] or something like that.

Subtract from that the number of stitches you need at the cuff, 68 (72) [76]. The answer is how many stitches you have to decrease from shoulder to cuff. 

Divide by 2; this is how many rows will have to have decreases. 

Divide that number into 132 (145) [163] which is the number of rounds I need in the sleeves. The answer is how many rounds to knit before you do another decrease. 

Knit that many rounds. When you start the next row, K1 at the underarm marker, K2TOG and at the other end of the round, Slip/K1/PSSO/K1 before the underarm marker. Then knit the rounds to the next decrease.

When you have knitted 100 rounds, count the number of stitches left and do your math again. You may need to leave more rounds between decreases. If you have at most 100 stitches left in a round, divide between your DPs as follows: 35 on N1, 30 on N2, and 35 on N3. Or whatever number adds up to how many stitches you have left.

Finish knitting the sleeve and stop decreasing when you get to 68 (72) [76] stitches. When you have done 132 (143) [163] rounds in the sleeve, work ribbing the same as in the neck, and bind off in rib as you did for the neck.

Check the underarms and the neck rib at the shoulders. Use duplicate stitch to close up any stretched-out stitches. Wash in cold water and allow to drip dry. 

You can work triple the rounds at the neck for a turtleneck.

You can work short instead of long sleeves, which will save you one or two balls or a hank of yarn. In fingering weight, this will be comfortable for mid-spring and autumn. 

You can put any interest design onto this basic jumper. If you want to work Fair Isle, houndstooth or Icelandic patterns, add stitches when you get to the body, to allow whole-number repeats of the horizontal pattern. Also add at least two inches of stitches in the body because these colorwork designs create a fabric with less give than monocolor knitting and you will need the extra stitches to make the upper body comfortable. 

Use the photo album for links to all kinds of beautiful ways to make your jumper. The main thing about them is, you can't work them on autopilot like you can with mono-color untextured jumpers, so they will take longer. But you owe it to yourself to make something that you will never find or will pay more for in a store.

Why Fallacies are False -- Epistemology redux

So a news radio station whose work I often trust has taken to reporting health information from a specific site and I am taking them to school.

First, the site does not publish a link to the studies they tout. The report I heard today came from a June 2 posting on the site and they never updated with a link to the study. 

Second, as I just showed, the information was two weeks out of date. The radio station is not keeping up with the real latest. They are cherry picking things that will get people's attention. Cherry picking is a fallacy all on its own.

Third, the site never states whether the FDA has evaluated things they post about. That's a potential fallacy of Misleading Authority.

Fourth, this gets into something that led me to cancel my subscription to Scientific American. The radio station gets paid to run ads about health information and, to avoid trouble over misleading listeners, the ads ought to contain the FDA disclaimer. For the website not to post the disclaimer makes them worse than advertisers. What is really happening here is that the radio station is giving free air time to things that are basically ads, but not getting paid for them, with no validation from other studies and no sense of whether the subject has been dealt with before. When SciAm published the fourth "article" from a company that touted 15 year old technology that never succeeded in the market place, instead of making the company pay them for an ad, I told them about it and canceled.

In fact the subject of the study, coffee, has a down side that has been known for decades, interfering with sleep. And as we all know, we have a drowsiness problem nationwide. The study touted by the website should take that downside into consideration, but since the website didn't post a link to the study, we can't tell if it admitted this downside.

If it didn't, its results are not worth reporting. Promoting drowsy driving and the other problems of sleeplessness, just to get attention, even if it filled a bucket on your list toward getting your doctorate, is irresponsible. 

And all this originated in MSM firing their medical experts in the 1980s to save money. Nobody at the radio station's management is competent to select health or medical or science material to broadcast; or else their overlords overruled them.

Two weeks later is two weeks too late in the news cycle. That also shows that the radio station is losing its grip on how to do news reporting. 

I know people who have trusted sources, and they have followed that trust into urban legends and even been exposed to fraud. Trust is earned, not granted. You have to become the expert on subjects you care about so that you pick up on it when somebody tries to lead you around by the nose.