Ramblings of a Menopausal Broad

Tag: Covid-19

Seven Things that I Love (1-31-22)

February 1, 2022 / / 2 Comments

I’ve been on a decluttering binge the past few weeks so right now my FAVORITE thing is my HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477 series, which has a kick-ass scanner. I’ve been scanning and recycling, scanning and recycling, scanning and recycling. It’s true what they say – decluttering your house does declutter your brain. Such a good feeling.

Coincidentally, one of my favorite illustrator/cartoonists posted this tonight…

Ran across these things recently…

1. This Website Where You Can Generate Your Own Song Lyric Hand Washing Posters – Wash Your Lyrics is the best way to make sure you wash your hands for that full 20 seconds. Google the lyrics to your favorite song, paste them into the text box on the website, hit the “generate” button, and either print your poster or save it as a graphic file.

My dentist has it in a small frame right above the sink in her office loo. I tape mine onto the mirror in my bathroom because I switch it a lot.

‘Feelin’ Good’ by Nina Simone

[Yet another cool thing found at my dentist’s office]

2. This Lion Who Lived in the Milwaukee Public Library – The building that is now the Milwaukee Public Library’s Central Library was built in 1895, but back then then it didn’t just house the library. The building was designed to be a shared facility that housed both the Milwaukee Public Library and the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The staffs from both the library and the museum often worked together and in 1928, a group from both the library and the museum made a cultural trip to Africa and to bring items back for the museum.

While there a local Maasai tribe gifted the group a rescued lion cub named Simba (Swahili for lion.) The group traveled with the lion cub and became attached to him so at the end of their trip they had him shipped home.

He lived for a while in the library/museum – even roaming free on occasion – until he got a such a bad tooth abscess that it required a veterinarian. At that point he was moved to the Milwaukee Zoo. Simba lived until he was 14 years old, which is not bad considering the lifespan for a lion in the wild is 10 to 15 years.
(Still, animals are always better off in their natural habitats than zoos.)

Samuel Barrett with Simba on the Milwaukee Public Museum Roof | Photo: Milwaukee Public Museum

3. This Dolly Party Cake Mix – I can’t tell you the last time I made a cake from a mix but I damn well will be buying some of this!

Unfortunately, they are already SOLD OUT but you can sign up here to be notified when they are back in stock. “Duncan Hines says the cake mixes and frostings will hit grocery stores and mass retailers starting in March and sell for about $2 each.”

[Found via Tom and Lorenzo – they are my gurus]

4. This Tweet that’s Simply Oozing with Sarcasm – who doesn’t love good satire?

The responses are equally as good – this one caught my eye for obvious reasons…

5. This Chess Set Ring – By Joe Turner, 2015. Both ridiculous and astonishing at the same time. I mean, who thinks to do this? Fossil ivory and ebony chessboard set in a silver ring. The pieces are cast in silver and fit snugly into a leather case inside a hinged compartment.

6. This Autograph – I posted this on Facebook but I’m putting it on here for those who aren’t my FB friend or who don’t look at FB anymore.

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Louie Anderson. I have been a fan for years. But actually, I really became more aware of him / a huge fan after he wrote his book ‘Dear Dad: Letters from an Adult Child.’ It’s about growing up the child of an abusive alcoholic father. The book is excellent. Neither of my parents were alcoholics or physically abusive but I still connected with the book.

Louie passed away ten days ago. He was only 68 years old. It felt like losing a friend I haven’t seen in a while. You know, the ones you feel guilty you haven’t tried calling or texting or emailing. That’s what it felt like.

I met Louie Anderson at a library conference. It was around 1990. He was signing copies of his book “Dear Dad” so I bought a copy and stood in line. When I finally got to the front of the line he looked at my name tag (it said Jennie) and asked if my name was pronounced “Jenny” or “Jeanie”. I told him it was “Jenny” and then told him the story of my name .

I explained that it had at one time been J-E-N-N-Y but that in 3rd grade I looked up Jenny in the dictionary and it said, “female jackass” so I promptly changed the spelling to J-E-N-N-I-E. I also told him that my Mom refused to accept the new spelling, despite this discovery, and always spelled it with a “y.” She’d say, “I gave birth to you, I can spell it whatever way I want.” He must have enjoyed this story because he signed my book with a very sweet message and he signed the promotional card for the event like this:

I had it framed and it has been hanging on my wall for, jeez, over 30 years. Pardon about the funky blemish on his photo – I couldn’t avoid the glare from the glass of the photo.

7. This Embroidered Tablecloth – Her other tablecloths are equally gorgeous and pretty much all sold out, despite being fantastically expensive.

Word of the Week

Quote of the Week

Seven Things I Love (3-22-21)

March 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This VACCINATED Menopausal Broad – pardon my hair, I forgot to fix it before the photo. You can’t see it but I’m both a little teary-eyed and overjoyed.

Not surprisingly, I’ve been reading everything I can on the vaccines and post-vaccine life and I found this excellent article in the Washington Post. WashPo has a paywall, so you may not be able to read it but here’s my favorite part, where the authors, Emily Heil and Tim Carman, talk about keeping a coronavirus budget. I think it’s a brilliant idea:

“There’s no such thing as zero risk, and nothing is 100 percent risky,” says Leana Wen, a visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health and contributing columnist at The Washington Post. “It’s a spectrum.” She has long urged people to think about their risks as expenditures from a “coronavirus budget,” and says the budgets of those who have been vaccinated just went way up. “You still have to think about how to spend it, and if your priority is seeing grandchildren and going to church, then maybe you’re not going to restaurants all that often.”

With encouraging headlines, springlike temperatures and our collective covid fatigue at an all-time high, it might be tempting to throw caution — and another round of takeout — to the wind. But experts agree that now is not the time to lower your guard, but instead to maintain your vigilance so we can return to something like normal by the fall.

From: ‘As vaccinations increase, you may want to dine indoors again. Here’s what to consider.‘ by Emily Heil and Tim Carman; Washington Post, Mar. 19, 2021
  1. 2. This Photograph of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs – I became obsessed with the Crystal Palace dinosaurs after reading the children’s book ‘The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins‘ by Barbara Kerley (illustrated by Brian Selznick). The book won a Caldecott Honor Medal in 2002 . I was still a Children’s Librarian at that time. It has everything I loved – London, the Victorian Era, paleontology/innovation/science and the illustrations are fantastic. Here’s a video of a reading of the book that is charming.

I thought – it would have been amazing to be there then and see the dinosaurs in person. Honestly, I didn’t realize they still existed until a couple years ago. I learned many moons ago the Crystal Palace had burned down, twice I believe, so I assumed that nothing had survived. But the dinosaurs did and I got to see them in May of 2019! Here are a few of my photos… (the guy in the photo is my London pal Rob.)

2. This Story about the Golden Tickets in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory – Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl was my all-time favorite book as a kid. I’m not sure if I’ve already told this story but one year, I think around when I was in second or third grade, I got a hold of a copy of the book. I read it and loved it so much that I re-read it over and over and over again. Around the twelve time my Mom started getting a little concerned that I was so obsessed with just one book so she bribed me with my first Nancy Drew book. That wasn’t such a bad thing, it led to a whole new world of my favorite teenage sleuth, but I always loved Charlie and his family and Mr. Willy Wonka.

I also loved the movie with Gene Wilder. To me he will always be the one and only Willy Wonka. I was actually excited when I first heard that Tim Burton was going to give the book a try and that Johnny Depp was slated to play Wonka, but I think I’ve spent to many years visualizing the candy maker as Gene Wilder.

I stumbled across this story while searching for something else and thought it was very interesting. For fans of the story, it’s not a major thing but curious nonetheless.

For some reason the book originally had it say on the golden ticket that the visit was to in February but in the first movie they changed it to October. Here is a brief post on Roald Dahl Fans.com where the person who runs the blog received an email with a question about this difference.

Here is what it says in the book:

“And now, here are your instructions: The day I have chosen for the visit is the first day in the month of February…”

“The first day of February!” cried Mrs. Bucket. “But that’s tomorrow! Today is the last day of January, I know it is!”

The person who runs the Roald Dahl Fans blog has one theory that I think is most likely/logical and that is that the filming schedule was from August to November and so it simply didn’t look like February outdoors (and it would have been too expensive to make it look like February back then.) I think that this is the most likely explanation but one has to wonder if there might be some other reason like, is October 1st someone’s birthday or anniversary?

3. This Instagram Post by 99 year-old Betty White – how is it that I have only just thought to follow Betty White now???? So many shows like this that I would love to watch – thank goodness they aren’t available to stream because I don’t have enough time in the day! (If you haven’t watched the Betty White documentary on Netflix yet I highly recommend it. I‘ll be posting my ‘Menopausal Broad’s Guide to Netflix’ soon, hopefully within the next week.)

4. This Number from the 1957 Movie, Funny Face – Pink has always been my favorite color. I’d like to think it would have been even if I wasn’t born a girl, but in the 60s in Iowa there were only two options – girl or boy – and it wasn’t kosher for boys to like pink. Having said that, you just know that at least half of the guys in those white painter jumpsuits wish their suits were pink too. But they still look like they’re having fun! Aren’t the clothes fabulous?

5. This 360 Degree Van Gogh Painting – you may want to actually visit it on Facebook to so you can make it bigger.

6. This Website that Lets You Create Your Own Bayeux Tapestry – The Bayeux Tapestry is made up of seventy-five scenes depicting events leading up to the Norman Conquest in 1066. It has a very distinct style and has been studied in depth (in fact they even know that there are 93 penises, not all belonging to men, included in the art piece.)

Here’s my first attempt…

And here is an artist named Andrew Swainson’s clever version of the Bayeux Tapestry in a tribute to Monty Python…

Andrew Swainson’s Pythonesque take on the Bayeux Tapestry
Photograph: Andrew Swainson/Monty Python

7. These “Personless Protests” in Myanmar – human ingenuity knows no bounds.

People in Myanmar know they will be shot if they protest peacefully so they are holding personless protests around the country featuring thousands of dolls called pyit-tine-htaung — a doll that rights itself every time it is tossed. The dolls symbolise the indefatigable attitude from interestingasfuck

Word of the Day

Quote of the Day

Seven Things I Love (3-15-2021)

March 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Modification to ‘Fearless Girl’ Showing her Breaking the Glass Ceiling – In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th State Street Global Advisors installed a broken glass ceiling around the now iconic statue. ‘Fearless Girl’ was installed on March 7, 2017 and was originally placed at the northern tip of Bowling Green on Broadway, facing down the Wall Street Bull. But the artist of the ‘Charging Bull’ (Arturo Di Modica) complained so the statue was moved to its current location across from the New York Stock Exchange Building.
  3. Not everyone, however, thinks the alteration was done well. What do you think?

2. These EXTREMELY Lucky People Who Got an Impromptu Concert from Yo Yo Ma at this COVID Vaccine Center in Massachusetts – I wouldn’t mind waiting at all under these conditions.

3. This Instagram Post Showing How Oranges are Collected in Valencia, Spain – ingenuity at its finest!

4. This Piece of Art by Bharti Kher called ‘Squaring the Circle’ – created in 2007, Indian artist Bharti Kher used thousands of bindis (Hindi: बिंदी, from Sanskrit बिन्दु bindú, meaning “point, drop, dot or small particle”; is a coloured dot worn on the center of the forehead, originally by Hindus and Jains from the Indian subcontinent) to create this colorful mandala. Mandalas are found in many of the southeastern religions. They are sometimes used as a map representing deities or as an aid during meditation.

To create a mandala out of bindis is extremely significant, not only because it is empowering to women but because it represents a strong community of women.

(Thanks Ann for find this for me!)

5. This FABULOUS Website Called ‘Window Swap‘ That Lets You See Out of People’s Windows Around the World – and it isn’t just that you get to see a photo, it’s an ongoing video so you can hear birds or traffic or whatever sound is found outside the window.

Leeds, UK
South Korea
Brussels, Belgium

6. This Artist Who Creates Animals Out of Flowers & Leaves – Josh Dykgraff is astonishingly talented! (Discovered on My Modern Met.)

7. The Group That Should Have Won Record of the Year at the Grammys – mind you, I like Billie Eilish but Black Pumas appeals to a far broader audience on many levels and the message in their music is so important.

FYI – I loved the dress (it’s Oscar de la Renta) that Taylor Swift wore to the Grammys…

FYI – if you have Disney+ and haven’t watched WandaVision, YOU MUST! (I am obsessed!) I will admit, I’m a HUGE Marvel Universe fan but I think even those who aren’t would enjoy how they recreated television sitcoms of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Admittedly, it would be very helpful to know a bit about the Avengers movies, especially the last two. Also, Captain Marvel’s storyline is quite relevant. There is a lot more but those two things I felt are the most significant. Wandavision is definitely not your typical MCU production. It has the usual easter eggs, humor and villains but it is also about love, loss, and grief. Since we all have or will experience the loss of a loved one it makes it incredibly relatable.

Word of the Day

This is an AWESOME Inuit word. I haven’t done this much lately but I look forward to doing it again as soon as I finally get vaccinated!

Quote of the Day

Have a fantastic week!

Seven Things I Love (1-11-2021)

January 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

1. This Photographer, Kirsty Mitchell – she is possibly my favorite photographer and I was lucky enough to get to see an exhibit for her book “Wonderland” in 2017. And incredibly they allowed photographs! I purchased the book (a completely worthwhile investment) but I love that I have several gorgeous digital shots. Here are a couple of my favorites (a few are close-ups of sections of photos; I thought I should limit how many full photos I posted – to see more be sure to visit Kirsty’s website!

2. This Indian (Comic Book) Super Hero – excellent use of a popular character to get health messages to kids! You can download a .pdf of the comic book here.

3. This 3-Year-Old Who Dressed Up As All Her Role Models – when Scout Penelope‘s “Nonnie” was diagnosed with breast cancer her mom Ashley tried to think of a project that they could work on together that would keep both of them occupied. The result was a series of amazing photos, a few of which are below with many more at this link. Scout is three-years older now (have been looking through things I have filed away so I’m finding older articles and links); don’t be startled when you look at her Instagram.

Frida Kahlo and Scout
Princess Leia and Scout
Malala Yousafzai and Scout
Betty White and Scout
Nonnie and Scout

4. These Formal Memos between the Produces of the Original Star Trek Discussing Vulcan Proper Names – this is very clever and hilarious! These people clearly are having fun and have a good working relationship.

Vulcans T’Pring, played by Arlene Martel, and Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy. T’Pring was “bonded” to Spock when they were children and they were supposed to marry. This all played out in the episode ‘Amok Time’ which ‘TV Guide’ ranked the 2nd best Original Star Trek episode ever.

Here’s the first letter:

FROM: Bob Justman

DATE: May 3, 1966

SUBJECT: STAR TREK PLANET VULCAN PROPER NAMES

Dear Gene:

I would like to suggest that all proper names for denizens of Mr. Spock’s “PLANET VULCAN” follow a set routine. To wit: all names begin with the letters “SP” and end with the letter “K.” All names to have a total of five letters in them—no more and no less.

Therefore: Mr. Spock aptly fits this pattern. Other names would be as follows:

Spook, Spuck, Spack, Speek, Spouk, Spaak, Spilk, Spiak, Spunk, Spank, Spink, Spenk, Sponk, Spilk, Spalk, Spelk, Spolk, Spulk, Spirk, Spark, Spork, Sperk, Spurk, Spawk, Spauk, Speuk, Spuik, Spouk, Splak, Splek, Splek, Splik, Spluk, Spakk, Spekk, Spikk, Spokk, Spukk, Spark, Spirk, Sperk, Spork, Spurk, Spxyx.

Hope that the suggestions are of immense help to you. I remain,

Your humble and obedient servant,

Robert H. Justman

5. These Classic Movies Done in the Style of Persian Miniature Paintings – these are amazing drawings done by Turkish illustration Murat Palta. You can see several more at this link, though most seem to be from rather bloody films. And then there are more here.

Here are two of my favorites:

Kill Bill

The Little Prince

6. This INCREDIBLE Colorized Collection of Short Historical Films – I’m a huge fan of Denis Shiryaev’s restoration work. I particularly love how he starts his videos explaining all the work he did to create the videos and the changes he made – fascinating! In this particular video he makes sure to clarify that his work is not completely historically accurate – he doesn’t know exactly what the original colors were, etc., so he needs to make educated guesses. Plus he sometimes will enhance things to make them look better, but again, sometimes it requires him to use his best guess. I think the final result is fantastic.

7. This Ad Seeking a Wife from 1865 – I must say, my favorite lines are the last three: “I want to buy bread-and-butter, hoop-skirts, and waterfalls for some person of the female persuasion during life. That what’s the matter with me. But I don’t know how to do it.”

I had to look this up but I think by “waterfalls” he means “waterfall bustles”.

Word of the Day

Quote of the Day

Have a Great Week!

Seven Things I Love (10-5-2020)

October 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I started to put together my post for the week and there ended up being way too many things, and curiously a huge number of them were food-related. So I’ve decided to post two blogs this week. Don’t worry, I don’t expect this to become a regular thing. (And I also forgot to actually POST them. ARGH! It’s an insane time right now.)

1. These “Iconic Pop Culture Homes Reimagined as Polly Pockets” – you can see more at this link including The Simpsons, The Lord of the Rings, The Shining and Friends. The details are fabulous!

The Royal Tenenbaums – Polly Pockets
Stranger Things – Polly Pockets

2. This Instagram account, Accidentally Wes Anderson – which was brought to my attention by my friend Ann and was recently written about in the NY Times. There’s a gorgeous new book being released this month. It includes some of the account’s best photos (I’m definitely going to ask for it for Christmas). Publication date is October 20th. For someone who has mild OCD, is a travel junkie, loves nostalgia and beautiful things there is nothing better than Wes Anderson.

3. This Kayaker, Lori Nickel – I love the way she writes, it makes me feel like I was there with her. And, since right now I’m doing a lot of armchair traveling and sports and theatre and, well, everything, this sort of article is most appreciated. I also love her attitude and the final little snippet of wisdom at the end, “And be grateful, because any race and any fun outside with friends and family – any sense of community in 2020, while we all deal with this Covid19 pandemic – is a gift. Especially when you can walk away from it.”

Unfortunately, Lori Nickel’s kayak took on water throughout the race and sank. Photo by Lori Nickel

4. This Woman doing a voiceover of a cooking show – she is the female Morgan Freeman for christ’s sakes. (Thanks Stasie.)

https://twitter.com/rahm3sh/status/1308212832396365825?s=20

5. This movie on Netflix, Enola Holmes, which became the number one ranked movie on the streaming network in its first week. It is perfection – it’s funny, intelligent, diverting, cinemagraphic, action-packed, and has a soupcon of romance (which is all I need nowadays.) Plus the costumes are fabulous! And as a HUGE added bonus, Henry Cavill as Sherlock (rawrrr.)

6. This stylebook – the AP Stylebook has always been my favorite and now this cinches it. They took the time to identify the usage of the terms “riot” vs “unrest” and the potential motivations beneath unrest caused by protests vs riots caused by mobs. Incredible really. More history. When apolitical institutions that are decades old start making political stands, there is something wrong.

7. This color – Pantone has declared a new color called Period to help remove the stigma with menstruation. (seen on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert)

I’ve decided to include a new feature in my weekly post. One of the things that I LOVE is language so each week I’m going to include a fun new word, not necessarily English, that I’ve stumbled across.

Word of the Week

It’s a little on the nose but schadenfreude has always been one of my top ten favorite words. I also wanted to include the interesting fact that Merriam-Webster saw an increase of 30,500% in searches for the word on October 2nd. Language is extraordinary.

Have a FABULOUS week!
Be safe, wear a mask,
stay home if you can.

Five Things I Love (7-13-2020)

July 13, 2020 / / 0 Comments

1. Hamilton Mask-Up! by the Holderness Family – Do you have Disney+? Did you get it just so you could watch the new Hamilton movie? I actually already had Disney+ (got it for The Mandalorian) so I watched Hamilton on the day it premiered, July 3rd*. SO GOOD! I was lucky enough to see Hamilton on stage. Went last year with a good friend. The theater experience itself was exciting and completely worth it but being able to see the original cast and notice the expressions on their faces and hear the words so clearly, it was equally exciting.

2. Mask Lanyards (or chain or cords or keepers or whatever you want to call them.) I saw one of these advertised in an article about mask accessories. Most everything in the article was crazy expensive but I thought the mask “chain” was cute and it was only $4.99. But I wasn’t sure about the clips so I browsed around until I found exactly what I wanted. There are a ZILLION options. I have already used this several times and I only got it last week. I think it will really come in handy going out to dinner (which I’m not doing yet.)

3. This video, Le Mythe Dior – the House of Dior dresses “creatures” from mythology. It’s mesmerizing.

4. This photo taken by the Hubble Telescope (you can see more photos at this article)

5. This new children’s book, ‘First Day Critter Jitters,’ illustrated by one of my favorite artists Liz Climo and written by Jory John – it really makes me wish I was still a children’s librarian so I could read this for storytime (when there wasn’t a global pandemic of course.)

[Bonus] The York Museum Trust’s twitter thread comparing Judi Dench to items in their collection (not quite as good as the thread comparing Angela Lansbury to teapots but pretty dang close)…

[Another Bonus] Gary Larson is BACK!!! Who isn’t a huge fan of Gary Larson’s cartoons? After a 25 year hiatus, Mr. Larson has gifted the world with three brand new cartoons and there is the possibility of more because he says that working in a new digital format has reinvigorated him, sparking his creativity. WHOO HOO! To see the new cartoons you’ll need to visit his website.

I’d like to thank my friend Ann for contributing the
Dior and York Museum Trust items this week!

*I’m sure that Disney+ chose July 3rd to premiere ‘Hamilton’ simply because it was the Friday before Independence Day but there is something also very apt about the movie premiering on that date (or rather not on July 4th.) July 3rd is the day between the day we now celebrate as our Independence Day and the day that independence was formally declared and that John Adams said would call “the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” It appears that we all celebrate our nation’s birthday on a date that was written on the back of the Declaration of Independence by an unknown person.

Despite conspiracy theories and movies, there isn’t a secret map or code on the back of the Declaration of Independence. There are words, however. An unknown person wrote “Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776” on the back. It’s believed that was added as a label when the document was rolled up for storage.

Thomas Jefferson is often called the “author” of the Declaration of Independence, but he wasn’t the only person who contributed important ideas. Jefferson was a member of a five-person committee appointed by the Continental Congress to write the Declaration. The committee included Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman.

The Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on July 4, 1776. In fact, independence was formally declared on July 2, 1776, a date that John Adams believed would be “the most memorable epocha in the history of America.” On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final text of the Declaration. It wasn’t signed until August 2, 1776.

From the article Why do we celebrate the 4th of July? Independence Day facts, history by Leada Gore

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