Round Up

First let me say that my heart goes out to all of the folks in Southern California. My parents, thankfully, did not have to evacuate, but their neighborhood is still a smokey, ash-filled place, but nobody lost their home. I wish some brilliant person could come up with some preventative measure to ensure that this does not happen again. What about wetting down the entire area before the Santa Ana winds arrive in late October? Sounds silly, but it might work.

And now to more light-hearted talk.

Do you remember when you finally learned up to jump rope and you thought you were the coolest thing? Or what about when you learned how to "jump in"? I always loved jumping rope and I still jump rope occasionally only now it's more for weight control. I love the Double Dutch Divas. They are amazing and they look like they are really having a blast.

Feed hungry people and test your vocabulary at the same time at Free Rice. Today I learned that cumbrous means unwieldy.

There was a time when I use to collect baskets. I had quite a few. Nothing so grand as a real Shaker Basket or these wonderful Sweetgrass Baskets.

I have become such a fan of these repositional graphics or wall decals. I have some on the wall of my office, but I would love to have some from Ferm Living. Now the company has a USA prescence and I would love to get some of their decals. Love the power pole , but really, really, really diggin' the Love Birds. They even have a blog.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture won't be opening until 2015, but there is website.

The GrayLit Network is a searchable database of U.S. Federal Government gray literature. And you might be asking, "And what my dear is gray literature?" Gray literature is literature that is not easily found. I could go on and on, but that is basically what it is.

That's all for this week. Have a good weekend and be thankful for everything you have.

"The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love." - William Sloan Coffin

Round Up

Take this bigots Nobel prize away from him. It just goes to show everyone's bigotry comes to the forefront one way or another. Am I surprised? No, of course not. I deal with this shit on a daily basis from people who swear they are very, very liberal and don't have a racist bone in their bodies. I'm just disappointed once again.

The international media project This I Believe has a wonderful website. I first heard about this on NPR and I got the book out of the library last week. I like that anyone can post their thoughts and it's just not a celebrity thoughtfest type of project. Some of the entries brought tears to my eyes. Check it out.

I never gave much thougth of the pocket protector and it's been awhile since I've seen anyone sporting one. Here is the history of the pocket protector and the pocket protector collection.

One of my favorite sites is Neatorama. They had a post on the 10 most amazing temples. Hands down the one that totally blew me away is the Tiger's Nest Monastery in Bhutan.

Wikitravel-need I say more?

Fascinating site about the Mao (Sun Yat-sen) suit. Every time I see one of th suits I think of that Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation video. Just can't escape the pop culture.

I have fallen in love with the items from Polka Dot Platypus. If you have babies in your life,believe me, you will want to spend some cash here. Such cute items. And what a delightful name. I always said that if could own a children's bookstore I would name it Knick Knack Paddywack.

K. thanks for telling me about Gridskipper. What a cool site. It's edgy and urban and chock full of information.

Occasionally A. and I will watch some of these judge shows while we are eating dinner. I am absolutely appalled at the way Americans speak. And I'm not talking about regional accents or anything like that. I am talking about deplorable grammar and the horrific buthering of words. It's awful. I think some of these folks should subscribe to Daily Grammar. Yes, I know that I tend to be a maniac about this sort of thing, but I spend a lot of time looking up words. I always have. Nothing has pleased me more than to be able to go to Merriam Webster online and hear word pronunciations. A. and I had a bit of quibble on the way to work this morning on the pronunciation of the word desultory. It's des-ill-torey. We both were a bit off on that one, but now we know.

Once again I am going to whine about the weather. It's October 19th. I need it to be cool and windy. I want to go for a long walk, wearing a sweater, and I want to hear the crunch of beautiful-colored leaves under my feet. While I'm walking I want my hands to be chilled and to feel that nip in the air. I want to return home from my walk and put on one of my Autumnal tarts to burn and have some cider. I CAN'T DO ANY OF THAT IF IT'S 80 DEGREES.

"[The secret of] how to live without resentment or embarrassment in a world in which I was different from everyone else ... was to be indifferent to that difference." - Al Capp

Stuff

I was looking through a magazine the other day and I was reminded of some of the different projects we used to do when I was a Girl Scout. I remember making the balloon paper mache jack-o-lanterns. Now, I don't recall if we had orange crepe paper back in the day. I think we just used torn up pieces of newspaper and then painted them orange when they dried. I definitely know we didn't have Mod Podge. We just used watered down Elmer's Glue. The most fun was popping the balloon after the paper mache had hardened, and then decorating them.

I wish I had saved so much of my Scouting paraphernalia. I wish I had saved all of the Girl Scout books or manuals, my autograph books, etc. The one item I did save is my sash with all of my badges. It cracks me up to look at it and see how I sewed the badges onto the sash. I don't even remember what some of badges are for. I also can't believe I got the sash around me, but then I do remember weighing 39 pounds when I was 6 years old. Our German Shepherd Nicki weighed the same amount and my mom has a picture of the two of us with our weight. I didn't really pork out until the last 10 years. I wonder what sorts of cool crafts Scouts do these days. My mom was my brother's Cub Scout leader for awhile and I used to help her with projects for them. Loads of fun.

So, I really don't have much to talk about today. I'm happy that cooler weather is prevailing, even though I've taken to wearing a baseball cap to protect my face and my hair from the pesky afternoon sun. Ever since I was a kid the sun turns my hair white. People always thought we were putting something on my hair. My friends would lay in the sun for hours and use bottles of Sun-In (I think that's what it was called). Mine just turned naturally, and I didn't care for it. Not my whole head turned, just the hair around my face. Now nature is turning the sides gray and the sun is turning the part touching my forehead white. Oh, yeah-very attractive. Hence, the baseball cap. I think it's interesting that we never get what we want, when it comes to things like hair.

The only other comment I have to make is about the Northwest Passage. And the comment I have is : LEAVE IT THE HELL ALONE. I'll be following this issue very closely. I have always been crazy, crazy about anything to do with the Arctic, and I so don't want us to do any more damage than we (and yes I do mean we AMERICANS) have already done to this pristine place.

"Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea " taken from the Northwest Passage song by Stan Rogers

Round Up

The garden Gnome craze hasn't really gotten to me yet, but I keep seeing more and more of these magical curmudgeons in more and more yards. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that there is a Gnome Reserve and Wild Flower Garden.



Check out the cool design of the mugs and other items from Dovetail Shop and Studio.



I hope that public restrooms will start to feature the very clever footpull soon.



Girl Power-Half of us are Female, but only 10 of our leaders are. That's right ONLY 10.



The Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Real names of the Marx Brothers:

Chico Marx-Leonard
Gummo Marx-Milton
Groucho-Julius
Harpo-Adolph (changed to Arthur)
Zeppo Marx - Herbert



Gems from the Archives of the New York Times. Lots of good articles here.



This site of Passive-Aggressive Notes is hilarious.



A history of the V sign.



Have a good week and a good long weekend.



"The leaves fall patientlyNothing remembers or grievesThe river takes to the seaThe yellow drift of leaves."- Sara Teasdale