Category Archives: Home & Family

May 11, 2014 · 3:44 pm

Happy Mother’s Day

Today is America’s official celebration of motherhood – when flowers, candy, greeting cards, and brunch are practically required. John and Paul and I took my mother with her bouquet of roses to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, followed by Indian buffet at The Mynt Restaurant in Saratoga, CA. We squabbled over who got to eat the caramels out of the box of chocolates she gave me. We missed Jessica and her husband Matthew but hope to talk with them by phone later today.

One of the benefits of my being the keeper of the photo repository is that I have a pictorial record from birth for almost every member of the family, including those below. This is a beautiful day to celebrate my wonderful family, of whom I am very proud!

Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson and baby Katy Dickinson, 1958

Katy Dickinson and baby Jessica Dickinson Goodman, by Jeffrey Davila, 1988

Grandpa Wade Dickinson, Grandma Eleanor Creekmore Dickinson, and baby Paul Dickinson Goodman, 1992

Katy Dickinson and Jessica Dickinson Goodman, at Petra Jordan, 2013

Matthew Holmes and Jessica Dickinson Goodman, at the Lair of the Golden Bear, Pinecrest CA, 2013

Katy Dickinson and Paul Dickinson Goodman 2014

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Tagged as Eleanor, Jessica, John, Jordan, Matthew, Middle East, Paul, Wade

May 10, 2014 · 10:05 pm

Happy Lizards

My recent redesign of my garden’s Willow Glen street planting beds is enthusiastically approved of by the alligator lizard community. I took out some large ratty irises and replaced them with lavender and yarrow. Now, there are lizards happily sunning themselves on all of the rocks. One bold fellow even decided to sit on my garden spade for a while.

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Tagged as garden, Mentoring, San Jose, Willow Glen

May 5, 2014 · 3:10 pm

Equality in Faith for Women

In many ways, this is a good time to be a woman of faith. Current examples have come to my attention:

Last week, there was a march through London to mark the 20 years of women priests in the Church of England. The Church of England also voted on 20 November 2013 overwhelmingly in favor of women bishops.
On 26 July 2014, there are plans for a big celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of women’s ordination in the Episcopal Church.
On 29 April 2014, the Rabbinical Assembly published “Women and Mitzvot” (by Rabbi Pamela Barmash), that says because women are no longer subordinate to men “The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards therefore rules that women are now held equally responsible for the mitzvot [commandments] as men have been.” The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis founded in 1901.

Since I am an Episcopalian Christian, it is no surprise that I know about the first events. You too can follow church gender politics on such websites as Chicks in Pointy Hats. I learned of the “Women and Mitzvot” ruling when it was announced by Rabbi David Booth at Congregation Kol Emeth (Palo Alto, California) last weekend. I was at Kol Emeth for the Bat Mitzvah of my friend Beth. Beth sang and discussed her Torah portion beautifully – I am very proud of her (and of her brother Max who also read).

“Women and Mitzvot” includes the following remarkable text on p.29:

The role of women in public life has changed dramatically in modernity. In society in general, women are now involved in commerce and the professions on an equal basis with men, and secular law considers women legally free and independent. In Jewish communities, women have been seeking to enrich their lives with more mitzvot. The changes in women’s social lives in general and in Jewish communities are not just a matter of external behavior but reflect a changed perception of women. Women are now seen as equal to men in social status, in intellectual ability, and in political and legal rights. The historical circumstances in which women were exempted from certain mitzvot are no longer operative, and we must embrace the realities of life in the 21st century.

And to that we say “Amen”.

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Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as Episcopal church, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

May 1, 2014 · 10:37 am

Katy on People to People Radio: 1 May 2014

Tonight (1 May 2014), I will be on People To People Global Radio Show talking with US Doctors for Africa Founder and Chairman, Ted Alemayhu, about Triangular Partnership, and the Pan-Africa Medical Doctors and Healthcare Conference, to be held 21-23 May 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our segment of this weekly radio program will be hosted by Dr. Anteneh Habte, Chairman of People to People. Join us Thursdays at 9:00 pm Eastern Time (6 pm Pacific Time). Access the weekly show online http://www.blogtalkradio.com/p2pglobalradioshow/ or phone 646-595-4742 each Thursday evening.

I will be traveling to Africa later this month (3rd time this year – a personal best!), with my husband John Plocher (his first trip to Africa). I have been working on the Triangular Partnership panel (moderated by former US Ambassador to Ethiopia David Shinn), as well as with the very helpful staff of US Ambassador Patricia M. Haslach of the US Embassy in Addis to prepare for the conference.

I edited and contributed a chapter to the People to People book Triangular Partnership: the Power of the Diaspora (published in September 2013) so this is a topic of great interest for me. There has been much written and discussed about Twinning. I believe that adding the diaspora – people who have a past and a future in both developing countries and western institutions – is a stronger model for successful development.

1 May 2014 Archived Recording

19 October 2019: Links Updated.

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Tagged as Africa, Ethiopia, John, writing

April 30, 2014 · 10:21 pm

Transfer to San Jose State

My son Paul has recently attended both “Admitted Spartan’s Day” and admitted students’ orientation day at San Jose State University (in San Jose, California where we live). He is in his final quarter at Foothill College and is excited about graduating in June with an Associates degree in Studio Art. After transferring SJSU in September 2014, Paul will continue to study fine art and also plans to earn a teaching credential.

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Tagged as Foothill College, Paul, San Jose, San Jose State University, teaching

April 21, 2014 · 2:21 pm

P-Phenylenediamine – Allergy to Hair Dye

I have regrettably developed a severe allergy to P-Phenylenediamine and possibly other dye substances. Over the last month, this has taken the form of violent Contact Dermatitis (think about what happens when you touch Poison Oak): inflammation, rash, blisters, itching – all the nasty ways your skin tells you that it is very unhappy about something you touched. I just finished taking Prednisone for several weeks – Prednisone is a synthetic corticosteroid drug that is particularly effective as an immunosuppressant – and am getting ready for a full allergy test at University of California at San Francisco – Dermatology Clinic.

I am writing this blog not so much to share my woe as to spread the word in case my readers may also experience this allergy. It certainly took me by surprise!

Paraphenylenediamine turns out to be a very common substance, found in:

hair dye, coloring rinse, comb-in hair tint, shampoo-in highlight, lowlights
skin paint, dark makeup, dark lipstick
henna tattoo
dye for socks, support hose, shoe dye
textile, rubber, and fur dyes
violin chin-rest stain
antioxidant in antifreeze, fuels, corrosion inhibitor in oils, gasoline sweetener
plastic manufacture, rubber antioxidant
printing ink, antiozonant
milk testing reagent, water testing reagent
retarder in acrylate production
lithography, photocopying
photo or x-ray film developing

A generalized reaction to PPD can also occur from taking closely related saccharin sweeteners, thiazide diuretics, sulfanamide antibiotics, sufonylurea antidiabetic agents, PAS, or celecoxib.

Some persons allergic to PPD will also react to black rubber mix, parabens, benzocaine group anesthetics, PABA family sunscreens, and azo dyes, especially orange and yellow, often in ballpoint pens.

This information is from the American Contact Dermatitis Society (ACDS).

More information:

US Environmental Protection Agency on PPD: p-Phenylenediamine, 106-50-3 (Hazard Summary-Created in April 1992; Revised in January 2000)
PPD in hair dye and elsewhere by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, in Skins Matter (July 2013)
Could your hair dye kill you? by Sali Hughes, The Guardian (28 November 2011)
Allergy to paraphenylenediamine Author: Vanessa Ngan, staff writer, DermNet NZ (Created 2002. Last modified 28 Dec 2013.)

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Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, teaching, University of California

April 20, 2014 · 10:19 pm

Easter Egg Hunt 2014

This morning was our annual backyard Easter Egg Hunt – a very popular event among our friends, family, and neighbors. About 15 children (ages 18 months to 21 years) joined the search for hundreds of plastic eggs filled with chocolate candies. For the adults, there were two specially hidden eggs: gold and silver. Only the following poems gave clues to their locations:

I know a bed where the wild thyme blows,
Where iris and nodding rosemary grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious lemondrops,
With sweet musk-roses and with nasturtium:
There sleep sweet bees sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there snake throws her cold enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

I have 3 guards for my home-place
The same number of eyes and legs between them
They keep for me in a safer space.
One would walk if he were fitted for a mind-Chem
but instead keeps me in the cool.
One is anxious but smiles except when asleep
One at ball’s drop can only drool
One was born only to be buried down deep
Can you find my comfy ark?
Or will you get lost in the barks?

Thanks to the Associate Easter Bunny, my daughter Jessica for her contributions to the poems (from Washington DC), and thanks to Paul and John for helping create today’s festivities! Clara and Paul and Dan teamed up to find the gold and silver eggs – and were rewarded with Peeps Chocolate Eggs for their hunting prowess.

Each Spring, I work for weeks to make our garden a demi-paradise for this event – full of flowers and rock borders suitable for hiding eggs. Easter coincided this year with the seed storms of the cottonwoods on the Guadalupe River in San Jose. Fluffy white seeds blow over everything like dry snow – so much spiderweb removal was needed, especially on WP668, our backyard caboose.

It is such a joy to watch the children filling their baskets, then re-hiding eggs for each other once the hundreds of eggs hidden in the morning by the Easter Bunny have been collected. A delightful celebration of new life and renewal!