Thursday, August 30, 2007

Round Up

I'm going to start this entry by talking about two incredible women, Grace Paley and Kris Carr.

Grace Paley passed away last week at the age of 84. I must say that I was more a fan of Grace Paley the woman, than I was of her as a writer. Oh, I'm a fan of authors-more than a fan-a groupie; but Grace Paley wrote mostly short stories. She also wrote poetry, and I am ashamed to say I have never read any of her poems, and short stories have never been my cup of tea. What I admired about Grace Paley was her unabashed liberalism, her years of activism, her want and love of peace and justice.
This is why I and many others loved her.

Last night, between watching Serena and Roger at the U.S. Open, I happened to switch over to TLC. I ended up watching an amazing documentary, by an incredible woman, Kris Carr. The documentary is Crazy Sexy Cancer. Kris Carr found out she had a very rare form of cancer 4 years ago. This documentary tells, with much humor and bravery, how she fights her cancer and all the people she meets along the way. She also has a blog and a book. There's so much more I want to say about this incredible individual, but just watch the documentary or read her blog.

So all you here about in the news and on television is DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). Has it been awhile since you studied about this in science class? If so, DNA from the Beginning might be just the primer you need.

Da Wanda-European Etsy.

Someone sent me Babies Eating Lemons from You Tube. It's hilarious and oh so cute.

Even though I work in WDC, I still get a kick out of seeing all the monuments every day. I don't see the White House on a daily basis, but I think we Americans think, Yeah, the White House, so what. (or maybe our attitude depends upon whose "up in there"). Anywho, I don't think I've ever given much thought to where other heads of state reside. Presidential Homes Around the World doesn't include all the head of states, but it does have a few. Love the pink Casa Rosado in Argentina.

Flickr is the bomb. Two more photosets I like. Vintage books and Paris windows.

When I saw these Adinkra symbols they reminded me of my beloved hobo signs.
Kaboost-very cool chair booster.
I would love to have an heirloom book done by the Good Stock people. What a wonderful idea.
Have a great holiday weekend.
Grace Paley was asked what her dreams were for her grandchildren. Her response was, " “It would be a world without militarism and racism and greed – and where women don't have to fight for their place in the world."

Friday, August 24, 2007

Round Up

Sarah Vowell groupie-yes, I am. Hear what Sarah has to say about architect Louis Sullivan. Do you have a favorite architect? And, please don't say Frank Lloyd Wright. I love him too, but who else.

Oak Park Public Library has received a $3,000 grant to develop the countries first transgender resource collection. Love the name of the Collection Development Librarian-Bleue Benton.

Hmmm...Great Moments in the History of Technical Services.

I was searching for something the other day, and it escapes me what it could have been, but I wound up on the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks Wikipedia entry.

I've spent the week reading articles from the magazine The Next American City. I haven't seen this one on the newstand anywhere. Really great articles on cities.

Interesting article on yearbooks and libraries that collect them.

Cute new children's book-The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians by Carla Morris.

I would love to see the musical Bookends. This musical is about Madeline Stern and Leona Rostenberg, the legendary antiquarian booksellers who you may have read the book Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion. More about the musical here.

Sadly, Madeline Stern passed away this wake at the age of 95. Ms. Stern was the person who discovered the earlier "blood and thunder" writings of Little Women author Louisa May Alcott. Ms. Stern was 95. Read an interview that she give with her partner Leona Rostenberg.

Someone else who made my world a bit brighter passed away this week as well. Jon Lucien was a jazz singer, but for me, his rich baritone was evocative of warm island breezes and sand between your toes. He was 65. Here's more from Mr. Lucien's website.

Have a good weekend.

"There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding friends - always ready to meet your mood, always ready to change the subject when you have had enough of this or that." J. Donald Adams

Friday, August 10, 2007

Round Up

(Once again-I apologize for any wonky spacing problems in this post)

Love, love, love to bake. I don't bake very much anymore because of my sugar problems and A. doesn't eat sweets. I know-How can that be? My beautiful red Kitchen Aid mixer is so lonely.

So what do I do to quell the Baking fever. Read baking blogs and eye all of the gorgeous food porn that abounds in the blogosphere. I came across Bakespace-MySpace for bakers the other day.

And speaking of baking, look at this ginormous cupcake. One can purchase the giant cupcake pan from here. Popgadget actually shows a good image of the pan. Things like this just make me giggle a bit. I can't even imagine how one would go about cutting this or seriving it. I would think it would end up a big mess on the plate.
When I was a kid we had to make the approximately 80 mile round trip to Pittsburgh once a week to see my asthma doctor. This went on for a number of years because my asthma was so bad and I had suffered an atelectasis (collapsed lung). We would either go by or stop in Big Boys. Big Boys was a burger, fry, shake restaurant. It was very 1950's. Out front there was this giant, well, big boy. I loved him. Any sort of giant symbol I'm all for. He sort of looked like the one in Livonia, Michigan, but they didn't have him perched so high-this one's going to get a nose bleed.

Even though I'm not baking too much anymore a couple of weeks ago I did whip up one of my old favorites. No-Bake Oatmeal Cookies. You know the ones with the peanut butter, chocolate and oatmeal. A friend of mine asked me to make these for her, but I ended up altering the recipe. I found a recipe that uses Nutella. Oh, my, gosh. The recipe also called for Frangelica, but I left that out and used high quality vanilla. Here's the recipe for Nutella Oatmeal Cookies. I only ate two and of course cleaned out the bowl and got the cookies out of the house as soon as possible. I think I might try that yummy white chocolate peanut butter next time instead of nutella.

Blueprint magazine featured an article entitled 100 reason to get rid of it. It's also been bounced all over the web. I've seen it on a couple of blogs. I thought I would join in because they really cover everything.
For all of you Mike Rowe fans (of Dirty Jobs fame)-All About Mike Rowe.

Every evening we watch the BBC News. Last night they had a story about 4 mountain gorillas being killed in the Congo. I actually shrieked when they showed the slain gorillas. One was a mother gorilla and her baby was found alive. There's more about it here (be warned-photographs) and if you go to the BBC News website there's the video they showed last night.

On Wednesday night BBC News had a story about the what is thought to be the last river dolphin in China.

All I have to say about both the dolphin and the mountain gorillas is this-STUPID FREAKIN' HUMANS.

Last weekend A. and I went to see Becoming Jane. It was okay. A lot of liberties were taken with historical accuracy, but it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. For some authentic Jane Austen check out Jane Austen Quote of the Day. .
Love this idea-The Historic Architecture Campus Project. I was very excited to see one of my alma maters listed.
Make sure to watch for the Perseids this weekend.
"This we know. . . the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected, like the blood which connects one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. " Chief Seattle (c. 1786 - 1866)

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Miscellany

Macaroons. I've become obsessed with them. Not what we in American call macaroons, but French macaroons(macarons). The party-colored delectables below are what I am speaking. Not that I've ever tasted one. There's a couple of bakeries in my areas that have them, but I have journeyed to get them and of course I could bake them myself, but let's face it-I'm just too lazy at this point in time. (even too lazy too drive to pick up these mouth-watering treasures-the height of laziness, which you would think that I would be too ashamed to admit)

What's sort of crazy, but then this always happens is focus. Once you focus on something it then appears to be everywhere. I keep seeing them in magazines, baking blogs, and I found out about cookbook author Dorie Greenspan's blog and voila-look at her Monday, August 6, 2007 post.

For some non-confectionary news, congratulations to Charles Simic, the new U.S. Poet Laureate. I confess to never having heard of Mr. Simic, but am looking forward to reading some of his poetry. And if you care to know who all of the U.S. Poet Laureates were, take a gander at this handy dandy timeline provide by LOC.

Science Hack-science video (hours of fun).

Just in time for Halloween-possessed books.

PC World has listed the 100 Blogs We Love.

After 40 years of being in deep freeze at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the complete Apollo Image Archive is available for browsing or downloading. Here is an article about the archive and here is the link for the archive.

I have always wished that every tree and flower, especially those in public spaces, were marked with not only their common name, but their classification, order, family, etc. You get my drift. Sometimes it's just inconvenient to carry all of the different printed resources on tree and flower identification with you. I can remember as an undergrand at Seton Hill wishing that someone would do that on campus. Seton Hill is a beautiful tree-heavy campus and I always wondered what was there besides maple and oak. Reed College in Portland, Oregon has a website devoted to their trees. Very cool.

3191 is a photo blog that two women share. They live 3, 191 miles apart. One in Portland, Maine and one in Portland, Oregon. They each post one photo every day. I really like this blog. It's simple and elegant and a very clever idea.

"Bakers of bread rolls and pastry cooks will not buy grain before eleven o'clock in winter and noon in summer; bakers of large loaves will not buy grain before two o'clock. This will enable the people of the town to obtain their supply first. Bakers shall put a distinctive trademark on their loaves, and keep weights and scales in their shops, under penalty of having their licenses removed." 1635 law introduced by Cardinal Richelieu

Friday, August 03, 2007

Round Up

Thoughts and well wishes to the people of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

It's good to know that there are companies that care about more than the bottom line. TOMS is one of those companies. Blake Mycoskie started the company after a visit to Argentina. His shoes for tomorrow(toms-tomorrow-Get it) are a simple canvas shoe that comes in a variety of styles. For every shoe purchased, a pair of shoes is donated to a child in need. Very, very cool. So far over 10, 000 pairs of shoes have been donated to the children of Argentina.




My friend to the let is JABBA. JABBA the hanging dryer from Ikea. Clever, very clever.




So your on vacation and you return home and find all of these pesky folks cluttering your picture. Some clever person has written a tutorial on how to remove said pesky folks.

Wonderful site devoted to FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). I'm telling you these ladies rocked (rock).

These web trend maps are fun. This one has the 200 most successful websites.

I have been spending way too much time on Google Patent Search.

If you are a fan of Vermeer, then you must visit this Vermeer Clickable Map or this Vermeer Clickable Map.

A friend of mine told me about the adorable blog Fat Eric and Friends. Just too cute.

How to Make a Box tutorial.

Flickr really is a wonder. People think of such interesting topics. Look at some of the Corners of My Home pics. Lots of great decorating ideas without the cost of one of the expensive home magazines.

That's all for today. Have a nice weekend.

"So our lives In acts exemplary, not only winOurselves good names, but doth to others giveMatter for virtuous deeds, by which we live. " George Chapman (1559?-1634) ATTRIBUTION:Bussy D’Ambois. Act i. Sc. 1.