Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Einstein

Of all of the statues that are located in Washington, DC, I think my favorite is the statue of Albert Einstein that is located outside of the National Academy of Science. There is just something about the relaxed pose of this statue that makes you just want to crawl up on his lap and have this amazing man tell tell you a story. No matter what your age.

I have always been an Einstein groupie. Ever since high school. Do I really understand the theory of relativity? Nah!!! I admire anyone that has such a fabulous brain, but for me it's more the person that intrigues me. Everything that I have read about him has led me to believe that he was just an exemplary human being, a good man. That's what has always made me such a fan.

I try and read any and everything I can about him. I was reading an article in Seed magazine about various poems that have been written about Einstein. The poet Delmore Schwartz wrote a poem entitled Albert Einstein to Archibald MacLeish.

Archibald MacLeish also published a a very long poem entitled Einstein, as well as Robert William Service. (if anyone can find a link to the MacLeish poem, please let me know)

The poem St. Francis Einstein of the Daffodils by William Carlos Williams commemorates Einstein's first visit to the United States in 1921.


Allen Ginsberg mentions Einstein in his poems Nagasaki Days and Cosmopolitan Greetings.

The article mentioned the 1965 Bob Dylan song Desolation Row. In the song Dylan mentions Einstein dressed like Robin Hood giving the hope of cheap electricity to the poor. Geez, with Maryland's electricity going up by 72% staring in June, I wish that had been true. I was trying to find other songs that mention Einstein or even better yet are about Einstein.

The one song that I found was As Time Goes By. You know, the wonderful tune sung by Dooley Wilson in the movie Casablanca. Check out the lyrics.

If anyone knows of any other poems or songs about my guy please let me know.

"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge..."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

All of the above quotes are attributed to Albert Einstein.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Alpacas

There are many things that I miss about rural/small town life. All of the things that used to get on my nerves are the very same things that I miss. That sense of community, people helping one another, and driving down the road and tooting the horn at people-not because of some driving blunder they've committed, but because you know them and they know you.

When I start to feel a bit homesick for my old life I read a few farm blogs. My favorite is Life on the Farm. With their very cool dog (a Komondor), their alpacas and living in Canada-this couple is living my fantasy.

Some other farm blogs that I peruse are:

Arctic Musings-this isn't a farm blog, but an interesting blog all the same

Brambleberry Farm

The Farmers Wife

Farmgirl Fare

Fragments from Floyd

Linda's Backyard Musings

Morning Ramble

Nature Mom

Ontario Wanderer

Roundrock Journal

Rurality

Sarah's Homestead



"Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; who sows a field, or trains a flower, or plants a tree, is more than all." John Greenlea Whittier

Friday, May 19, 2006

Friday Round Up

Volunteering is something that is beneficial to both parties. I have been volunteering ever since I was a kid, and I always felt that I gained more than I ever gave. I was thrilled to see the United Nations Online Volunteer Program. I was wondering when someone would come up with something like this. I think there are quite a few people who would like to volunteer, but for one reason or another, would prefer providing help without leaving home, etc. I wonder if there are more online volunteering opportunities. If anyone does of any please let me know.

The $10.00 Club is a group of individuals who have pooled their moneys by donating $10.00 each month. It is astonishing to me the number of people that they have helped. Click on the Poverty Alleviation link and get ready to be astounded. For me this is what it's all about. Helping, helping, helping.

Spent some time yesterday perusing the National Geographic News site. The article on the grizzly bear-polar bear hybrid was very interesting. (always had a penchant for bears)

One of my favorite poets passed away last week. Stanley Kunitz was the winner of just about every poetry prize there is including being the U.S. Poet Laureate in 2000. I think my favorite poems were in the collaboration he did with Genine Lentine, The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden. He loved gardening and that is very reflective in this beautiful work that also has photographs of his Provincetown, MA seaside garden. He was 100 years old when he died.

I have been looking everywhere for the M&Ms Pirates Pearls. Well, not everywhere, but in a couple of drug stores and they don't have them. If you are in the Washington, DC area and you know what store has these, please, please, please let me know.

Have a nice weekend.

“The poem in the head is always perfect. Resistance starts when you try to convert it to language.” Stanley Kunitz

“I like to use a word in a poem with its whole history dragging like a chain behind it. And then we go over the sound.” Stanley Kunitz

Friday, May 12, 2006

Friday Round Up

I had heard of gift registries for weddings, but Greenwish allows you to register for both cash and gifts for other occasions such as retirement, new baby or a new home. Great idea.

Clementine oranges are something that we tend to purchase around the holidays. I always thought the crates were cute, but never gave much thought of what to do with them after all of the clems were gone. Apparently others have found some interesting uses for them.

Every few months I hunt around the web for information on outside art and folk art. In my last trek I came across this Folk Art in Bottles page. Just incredible.

On February 29, 1704, a force of about 300 French and Native allies launched a daring raid on the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, situated in the Pocumtuck homeland. 112 Deerfield men, women, and children were captured and taken on a 300-mile forced march to Canada in harsh winter conditions. The Raid on Deerfield site is maintained by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association/Memorial Hall Museum. The site commemorates and reinterprets the raid on Deerfield from the perspectives of the five different groups who were present at the event: Kanienkehaka (Mohawk), Wôbanaki (Abenaki), Wendat (Huron), the French, and the English. The site allows visitors to decide if this raid on contested lands was a brutal attack on an innocent village or a military maneuver against a stockaded village.

I love to make different types of candy, and I have always felt that nothing makes fudge creamier and absolutely devine like goat's milk. Now I see there is goat's milk ice cream. Well, why not?

Everyone have a nice weekend. For all of you moms out there have a nice Mother's Day.

"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity". Eleanor Roosevelt

"The mother’s battle for her child—with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life—needs to become a common human battle, waged in love and in the passion for survival". Adrienne Rich

Friday, May 05, 2006

Friday Round-Up

I was fortunate because there was alway a lot of reading material around my house when I was a kid. Lots of books, lots of magazines. My mother subscribed to Highlights and American Girl for me, and there was one other kid magazine that I got, but I can't recall the title. I received American Girl from the time I was in grade school all the way into high school. I remember when I gave my collection of American Girl magazines away, and now I wish I would have held onto them. What was even more fun than reading my own magazines was reading my mothers. Looking through the pages of Good Housekeeping and McCalls always made me feel a bit older, somehow more sophisticated. One of items that McCalls had was the paper dolls. I think "her" name was Betsy McCall and each month there was a different theme with various theme-related dresses. I can remember getting my round-tipped scissors and cutting these out, and what I did with them afterwards is anyone's guess. I actually think I was more enthralled in cutting them out than anything else. All of these memories came rushing back to me when I stubled on this Paper Dolls on the Web page. Which led to this Paper Doll Printable Cut-Outs page.

I was looking for the Vindication of Rights by Mary Wollstonecraft. I ended up finding it on the Internet Saced Text Archive. Name a sacred or historical text, and it's more than likely on this site. Want to take a gander at Leonardo Da Vinci's Notebooks. They are here, as well as the Current Phase of the Moon (it's waxing half today)and various selections from Rumi. The site is searchable and is updated frequently (I am constantly looking to see when sites like this are updated).

The R.R. Donnelly Publishing Company started the Lakeside Classics series in 1903. The founder's son Thomas E. Donnelly believed that a simple book, dignified and well designed, would be an appropriate holiday gift.The basic format of the Lakeside Classics has remained the same for more than 100 years, testifying to the sound design of the first volume. Each 25 years the cover material is changed and type style adjusted to keep pace with current developments in fine book making.

The early volumes consisted of speeches and writings of noted Americans. In 1911 the series took its present style-first-person narratives about American history taken from books long out of print and not easily obtainable. In the 1980s, the series covered history on the North American continent. During the 1990s R.R. Donnelly the series was expanded to include narratives by American writers about international experiences. You can't purchase a Lakeside Classic from the company. They are sent annually to employees, retired employees, stockholders and some customers. Here is the entire list of Lakeside Classics.


"The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go."

-Dr. Seuss

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Why oh Why oh Why

Why, oh why, oh why haven't Lauren Graham and Kelly Bishop received (more) accolades for their acting on Gilmore Girls? I'm not big on all of these award shows. I always think it's gilding the lily so to speak, but these two are really wonderful actresses, and make the show in my humble opinion.

And with that being said the 2006 Goldman Environmental Award Winners List is out. The Goldman Environmental Prize has been called the "Nobel for the environment" award. It is the largest environmental award and it has been awarded to six grassroots environmental activists representing North America, Africa, Asia, South and Central America, Europe, and Islands and Island Nations. The North American winner is Craig Williams. He stopped the Pentagon from incinerating stockpiles of chemical weapons stored in various locations around the United States. The prize comes with an unrestriced award of $125,000.

I'm a bit late in finding this out, but Terry Belanger, university professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia won a MacArthur Foundation award last year. I had heard of Mr. Belanger before I went to library school, and in quite a few of my classes his name was mentioned time and time agains as the rare book preservationist guru. In one class we watched a film that he was in about book preservation. He started the Rare Book School in 1983 at Columbia University, and moved the school to its present location at the University of Virginia. Here is a list of last year's winners.


"So I accept these awards on behalf of the cake bakers and all of those other women who can do some things quite as important, if not more important, than flying, as well as in the name of women flying today". - Amelia Earhart

"I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either". Jack Benny (1894 - 1974)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Reference Books

Came across these interesting reference books while actually looking for books for the workplace.

Encyclopedia of Appalachia by Rudy Abramson

Encyclopedia of the Arctic by Mark Nuttall

The Encyclopedia of Chicago by James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff

Encyclopedia of Kitchen History by Mary Ellen Snodgrass

The Encyclopedia of New England by Donald Hall

Execution : The Guillotine, the Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting Someone to Death by Geoffrey Abbot

Random House Webster's Word Menu by Stephen Glazier

Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia by Danzig Baldaev, Sergey Vasiliev, and Anne Applebaum

The Timetables of History : A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events by Bernard Grun

Encyclopedia of Water by David Newton

Timetables of Women's History by Karen Greenspan

If I had to pick two that I wanted to own they would probably be The Encyclopedia of New England and Word Menu. I understand Word Menu, which is all about nouns, has 3 pages on names for underwear. What fun!!!

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it". Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson