Round Up

Saddened to hear that comic actor Harvey Korman passed away. If you are old enough to have watched that Carol Burnett show you will recall how wonderful he was in all of those sketches.


Check out Amy Walker and her accents. Amazing!!!

Even if you aren't a yoga practitioner I think you might get a kick out of the book Born Yogis.

America's Most Endangered Historic Places. Very sad to see California's State Parks listed.

The Progressive Historian has started an Obscure Online Historical Database thread. Make sure to read the comments, and add an obscure database of your own.

The Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL) is searching for typos around America. This would be so much fun. I want to join in.

It seems that every few months I mention Shorpy on this blog, but I can't help it. I love black and white photography and this site is the bomb.

Two architecture sites that came to my attention this week: America's Favorite Architecture
and the Archi-Tourist wiki. The viewer can vote for their favorite architecture out of the listing provided. Quite a few picks from the WDC area. Archi-Tourist is a travel-based wiki guide to architecture around the world.

Someone on my favorite Etsy was selling photographs of Audrey Hepburn and her pet deer Pippin. Who knew?

Love this idea. People can help rare book restorarion by adopting a book at one of the Princeton University Libraries.

I have to get one of these black false shamrocks. I keep saying I'm going to start a black and white garden in my back yard. This one has more of a purple tinge to it, which is fine by me.

Yes, we have too many camp chairs or I would have purchased the cool Cynthia Rowley chairs at Target. (well at least 1 pink one for me. Somehow I can't see A. sitting in a pink chair at one of the jazz festivals this summer). She also has a pink garden hose. Hmmmm......

Look at these incredible book tables.

That's all for the round up this week. Everyone have a great weekend.

"Architecture is inhabited sculpture." Constantin Brancusi

Paths

Do you ever wonder about the path that you did not take? Do you have regrets about not doing something or doing something that you are now having second thoughts about?

I guess what has prompted this latest bout of ennui is running into old friends on the Internet. I ended up searching for one thing and found a really good friend's name from nursing school. I may have written about her before. We were in nursing school together, I quit, she kept going and now she has a Masters in Nursing and is a nursing instructor at a school in our neck of the woods in Soutwestern Pennsylvania. I often wonder if I hadn't quit school and chosen a different path would I perhaps be a nursing instructor, maybe a cruise ship nurse or maybe Nurses Without Borders?

RDS was so supportive when I quit. When everyone was asking me my future plans and my response was, "I'm going to go to my fantasy place, Alaska, and work on the Alaskan Pipeline." Like my parents were ever going to go for that. RD made me see sense. RDS thought I was nuts, but she didn't totally poo-poo the idea. She was more supportive with my mom's grand scheme to get me to the "nunnery". Not really a nunnery. An all-female, Catholic college. Of course, I was furious, but RDS made me think that this was possibly something I could live with. And to give both her and my mom their props, it turned out to be the best decision I ever made.

But, I still wonder.

RD, I am so proud of you. You were such a good friend to me then, and I am so proud of you now for following your dream. Good going girlfriend!!!!!

“Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.” Henry David Thoreau

Round Up

2009 will be the 200th annivesary of the birth of Charles Darwin. The Darwin Census is trying to count all of the extant copies of the 1st edition of the Origin of the Species. If you are one of the lucky folks to have a copy of this book contact the Darwin Census. The results will be published online. There will also be a 2009edition of this remarkable work published.

Library Thing has a group called I See Dead People's Books. This group has been entering the library catalogs of famous readers. Some of the famous that have been cataloged are Susan B. Anthony, W.H. Auden and Tupac Shakur. I'm providing the link for Tupac because I think some people will be surprised to learn that Tupac was such an avid reader. (if you aren't a member of LibraryThing you may not be able to open the link)

How would you like to travel the world by ear? Wild Sanctuary permits you to do just that. Click on either Google Maps or Free Earth and you can listen to the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral. (love tintinabulation).

I use every possible version of Sharpie available. Now you can have a personalized Sharpie with your very own message with My Sharpie.

We had a lilac bush in the ginormous yard of my childhood home. The scent of those flowers were amazing. Lilac is still one of my favorite scents. I would love to visit the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens.

I am really enjoying listening to canoe. Sort of a shock to me that I like this group. The whole indie rock thing has mostly passed be by.

If you are in the markets for either hooks or some parts for an old toilet look no further-The Hook Lady and This Old Toilet to your rescue.

Smithsonian Blogs.

The Tumble Bus, clever idea. Wish they had something like this for adults.

Interesting Flickr groups-the freezer paper stencil group (doing this on t-shirts is so much fun), Coffee Mugs and Librarian's Desks.

Have a wonderful weekend and a nice Memorial Day.

Round Up

Why don't women have cool handshakes like men? The brothers are always coming up with all of these creative handshakes/greetings and women don't seem to ever adopt them. (I'm only given men credit for these greetings until I learn otherwise). I have seen men greet themselves by shaking hands and then doing the shoulder bump thing.

I want us of the XX chromosomes to come up with some cool way to greet each other. Now, I'm a hugger. Even with my introversion, I still am fairly affectionate. There's a women that I work with that I am very fond of, but I don't see her very often. Whenever we happen to run into each other we always give each other a hug.

If anyone can come up with some cool greeting for the ladies let me know.

I remember when I was a little girl having this brownish color dress with all of this smocking on the top of it. At the time I hated that damn dress. I didn't like it until I grew out of it in 2nd grade and was wearing 6x. Do they still even make that size? It seemed so odd to write that and to even say, "I wore a 6x in 2nd grade." Anyway back to the smocking. Did you know that there is a Smockers Guild of America (SAGA)? There site seems to be a bit out of sorts, but apparently there are smockers guilds everywhere. Here's the Ottawa guilds site.

Coudal Partners has an exceptional site: Museum of Online Museums. Great directory.

The Library of Congress (LOC) has some of the best collections. Look at this collection of railroad maps.

What would we do without You Tube. If you want an easy explanation of what a wiki (quick in Hawaiian) is look at this video by Common Craft. Or this one explaining copyright using Disney characters. 2 of my favorites after the Evolution of Dance.

Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl has a scrubs collection. It's about time someone did this. I can't tell what the costs are for these, but they are very nice. When I was sporting scrubs we had 2 colors-blue and green. These are gorgeous. Love this one in orange. I have become nuts about orange lately.

I had never heard of microblooging or Twitter until this week. I'm not too sure I would have a lot of use for this, but it's kind of fun.

Boolify-boolean made fun.

If I were a pooch, I would want my humans to purchase my things at Fetch Dog.com. I would definitely want this booster food bowl. I have a bad back so I wouldn't have to bend down so much to gobble my organic kibble. And they have a wonderful selection of doggie beds.

That's all folks. Have a good weekend.

"We live in our desires rather than in our achievements." - George Moore

Round Up

-----. I have become so enamored of cake stands of late, and this one is gorgeous. Must have, must have!!!

LOC's (Library of Congress)Wise Guide, a monthly Web magazine of historical highlights and fascinating facts from the Library of Congress.

Take the companies country of origin quiz.

Here's another fun quiz-corporate logos.

If you are in need of free legal forms check out Docstoc.

Mount Tremper, New York is home to the World's Largest Kaleidoscope. I remember the first kaleidoscope I had as a kid. I'm very color-oriented anyway and I would sit for long periods of time just holding it up to my eye and watching the magic happen. I would love to see this large one in Mount Tremper.

Danish artist Peter Callesin does some amazing work. Look at these intricate papercuts. Seeing Mr Callesin's work reminds me of Victoria magazine's artist-in-residence Sharon Sowell's beautiful, delicate work. Her delicate silhouettes are incredible too. Remarkable what these two people can do with paper and scissors.

The Availability of Sweet Tea in Virginia as a Representation of the Mason-Dixon Line. Need I say more.

It's 10:00 p.m. and you are just dying for a Snickers Bar or maybe a soda and some chips, but your larder is bare. You are already in your jams and don't want to get dressed and run out to the nearest store. If you live in the Foggy Bottom section of Washington, DC you are in luck. Just access DC Snacks from your computer and order your favorite munchie. They will deliver it to right to you.

50 Best Cult Books.

Have a good weekend. All of you moms out there Happy Mother's Day.

"Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together." ~Pearl S. Buck

Round Up

<HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!!!!

I am just loving this woman's voice and her music in general.

Pronetos is a home to scholars of every academic discipline.

National Archives and Record Administration's (NARA) Digital Vaults is excellent and I can see why it has won awards. The data is organized by tags and linked to both the tags and other sources. I love seeing more and more Web 2.0 types of organizations.

BuyOlympia.com has a lot of great hand made goods and more.

Blogs from the U.S. government.


10 insulting words you should know (just love Neatorama)

This piece on too many cookbooks from Apartment Therapy rings so true. I am a reformed cookbook junkie. I used to have a lot of cookbooks. Too many, but through the years I have given a lot a way and now have just a few, plus my binder of recipes that I have been collecting since high school. It gets weeded periodically too.

At one time or another I have subscribed to Gourmet, Cook's Illustrated, Bon Appetit, and Saveur. I am thinking of subscribing to Saveur again and I am getting very attached to Gastronomica. I have subscribed to various culinary newsletters back in the day. My favorite being John Thorne's Simple Cooking. I subscribed for quite a few years and then ended up selling them on eBay for a nice price. I have 2 or 3 of John Thorne's books, which I re-read every couple of years.

I also subscribed to the utterly charming Cook & Tell newsletter. This was way before the web. I loved this newsletter and don't know why I stopped my subscription. It is written by Karyl Bannister from West Southport, Maine. The newsletter is folksy and charming and includes some of the author's drawings. I found that she now has an online prescence and a book.

The last cookbook I purchased was a few weeks ago. Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth by Jill O'Connor. I've just paged through it and haven't read it yet.

Sorry for the short post. Have a great week.

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill