Monday, September 24, 2007

Round Up

I knew it, I knew it. I knew that Aristotle, Ferdinand Magellan and oh yes, that schmuck Columbus were wrong.

If you were/are a fan of the program Dead Like Me, there's going to be a movie (yippee).

Thinking of moving. Movingscam might come in handy.

My newest ceramic obsession is Cathrineholm ceramics. (the link is to an ebay page. I'm loving the orange and the black. In fact, I am liking so many things that are orange these days). It's Norwegian ceramics. Lovin' everything about Scandinavia.

The longest living light bulb in history.

Square America, a gallery of vintage shots and vernacular photography.

The Mother's Day Project. I think this is a lovely idea, but it pisses me off that there is a need for anything like this. It should piss everyone off.

My Favorite Mirror makes custom pocket mirrors and oh so cool mousepad, which I am in the market.

Oh, someone after my own heart. Love the List Universe. (thanks K. how did I miss this one).

You must visit the very cool blog Faces in Places.

Eons, a social networking site for the 50+ crowd.

Love this photography. Probably because most of it is in Sweden.

A few more days and it will be my favorite month. Can't wait.

falling leaveshide the pathso quietly~John Bailey, "Autumn," a haiku year, 2001, as posted on oldgreypoet.com

Monday, September 10, 2007

Round Up

I had never heard of or seen a bottle tree before, but it wasn't long before I moved to the South (okay Maryland I know you don't consider yourself the South, but I do) did I find out about these charming bits of folk culture. If you can't make your own, the Bottle Tree Man can create one for you.

This story about the Lost Gardens of Heligan are fascinating.

Another small car I've been diggin'.

I'm always interested in knowing where author's papers end up-being the big author groupie that I am. I also get excited when I see that there papers are available electronically. I mean, I really get excited. I was thrilled to see that the wondeful University of Illinois Press has made Booker T. Washington's papers available online and get this-they're searchable.

Frosting/Icing color chart. Why didn't I have this when I used to bake a lot.

Cow Pots-the pots you plant.

Pooch crazy, yes I am. This just cracked me up.

Drexel University has a well-done exhibit devoted to Women Physicians 1850's to 1970's.

Top 100 Science Fiction Books.

Breathtaking.

Totem Poles-incredible artistry.

That's all folks. Have a good one. I think some cooler weather is coming my way. Happy, happy days.

"Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are." Jose Ortega y Gasset

A Wrinkle in Time

I didn't read A Wrinkle in Time until I was older, but it was very much like a light was turned while I was reading this wonderful book. When a friend recommended the book to me, I kept thinking this book sounds like fantasy and I'm not a big fantasy lover. This book was so much more than anything I could have imagined. A book that combined science with wonderful characters was something I would have loved to have read as a child.

I re-read A Wrinkle in Time every couple of years and it still charms me as much as the first time I read the book. I was so crazy about this book I had to find out more about its author Madeline L'Engle. What an amazing woman Ms. L'Engle was. I ended up reading quite a few of her children's books and her books for adult reader. I am especially fond of her book, The Summer of the Great Grandmother. I am not a religious person, but I enjoyed reading her thoughts on religion and her mystical approach to religion in general.

Sadly, Madeline L'Engle passed away last Thursday (9/6/07) at the age of 88. She disliked being classified as a children's author. Here's what she had to say about that, "In my dreams, I never have an age," she said. "I never write for any age group in mind. When people do, they tend to be tolerant and condescending and they don't write as well as they can write. "When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work."

She shared her unique gifts with us and I for one will always be thankful for that. You can find out more about her here , here and here.


"In the face of such shape and weight of present misfortune, the voice of theindividual artist may seem perhaps of no more consequence than the whirringof a cricket in the grass, but the arts do live continuosly, and they liveliterally by faith: their names and their shapes and their uses and their basicmeanings survive unchanged in all that matters through times of interruption,diminishment, neglect; they outlive governments and creeds and societies, eventhe very civilizations that produced them. They cannot be destroyed altogetherbecause they represent the substance of faith, and the only reality. They are what we find when the ruins are cleared away."
Madeline L'Engle-Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage.