Ramblings of a Menopausal Broad

Tag: Milwaukee

Seven Things I Love (7-25-2022)

July 26, 2022 / / 0 Comments

1. This Country Music Group on America’s Got Talent – I’m not a regular AGTT watcher. I tend to watch the truly amazing performers who go viral via YouTube weeks or even months after they’ve been on the show. But I managed to catch this performance just a few days after they were on. Most likely you’ve already seen it or at least heard about it.

Chapel Hart is a KICKASS trio from Poplarville, Mississippi. Their performance was so sensational that the judges (Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofia Vergara, Simon Cowell and host Terry Crews) made an exception to the rules and gave a “Golden Buzzer” to the group even though there were no more Golden Buzzers left to give.

CHAPEL HART; PHOTO CREDIT: ALEXIS CARTER

Chapel Hart (sisters Danica Hart and Devynn Hart, and their cousin Trea Swindle) performed an original song called “You Can Have Him Jolene” which is a tribute to their idol (and America’s idol) Dolly Parton.

You can watch the video (again and again) below and also read the lovely tweet from Dolly herself!

(Side note: a little history behind Dolly’s Jolene. One day Dolly met a little girl named Jolene and she said to the girl – such a lovely name, I should write a song. And she did! But she decided to use a little bit of her own life for the story. Going all the way back to just a year after she was married to her husband Carl – 1996. It seems there was a bodacious redhead making goo-goo eyes at Dolly’s hubby and that was the inspiration for the song. Needless to say, Dolly ain’t gonna let Jolene have him.)

In addition to getting this fabulous recognition from Dolly, Chapel Hart also has been invited to debut on the Grand Ole Opry. It’s been quite a week for these three young women.

(One more side note – Dolly Parton made a cameo on this week’s The Orville. She plays herself, even though it takes place in the 25th century. It’s clever how they work that out in the storyline. It was fantastic!)

If you’d like to watch the video directly on YouTube here’s the link.

[Shared with me by my friend Meta]

2. This Emu named Emmanuel Todd Lopez, and his adorable caretaker, Taylor Blake of Knuckle Bump Farms –

Taylor had been making education videos when Emmanuel made an unplanned cameo and since then Taylor and Emmanuel’s videos have gone viral. People are scrambling to get a hold of some of the “Emmanuel, don’t do it!” merchandise! Taylor says – it’s coming!

Who doesn’t love emus???

[Found on LGBTQ Nation]

3. This Editorial About Why It Matters That J Lo Took Ben Affleck’s Last Name – Honestly, I don’t know why a 50+ year old (especially one who’s been married like four times) would want to take their husband’s name.

Here’s the thing – I get that it’s easier four couples to share the same last name, especially if there are kids involved. In this day and age I feel like at the very minimum that couples should hyphenate their names and both take each other’s names. There are also couples who figure out how to merge their names into a single name.

And I get it – from a family legacy thing and ancestry and all that (carry on the family name) that doesn’t work but really, the whole family legacy thing is bullshit. It’s just men and their egos.

Anyway, this article explains very thoroughly why it is problematic for Jenny from the Block to take Ben’s name.

You’re a feminist Jennifer!

4. These Coffee Pods – I have one cup of decaf coffee every morning which is why I don’t really like to make a pot or futz with a lot of different appliances.

Recently I have been using a small pour-over and it’s fine but it still takes a bit of time and effort, sometimes more than I want to put in first thing in the morning.

But I stopped using k-cups for a couple reasons, the main one being that they are bad for the environment. The second reason being that drinking a hot beverage that has been poured through plastic is not healthy. After all, we avoid putting items in plastic now in the microwave. Why would we think it’s okay to run hot water through k-cups to make coffee?

Enter Cometeer. These are “pods” in that they are pod-shaped but that is the only similarity. The contents are high-quality beans that are ground and brewed and then flash-frozen into a small sphere. The spheres are put into the pods. Cometeer sends your package in dry ice so it arrives frozen (you receive notification so you can watch for it as soon as it’s delivered and can get it into your own freezer.)

All you need to do is drop one of the spheres into a cup of hot water and you have a perfect cup of coffee. I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever had such a smooth cup of coffee.

I signed up for a subscription (every four weeks) for the decaf package and have only tried two of the types included so far. It comes with four different varieties.

Seriously, this is life changing. Also, it makes fabulous iced coffee drinks!

[Discovered in Wired and ]

5. This Milwaukee-Themed Collage – Only Milwaukeeans will understand how wonderful this is.

Can you identify all of them?

Starting at top going clockwise: The Purple House, Brother Ron and his Religious Car, superfan Mike “Freeway” McCarter, the late year-round sunbather and nudist Dick Bacon, John Hamann aka “The Milverine”, the late Frank “Pepperoni Cannoli” Pecoraro, and in the center, TV attorney David Gruber.

[Found on On Milwaukee]

6. These Vintage Home Gadgets – Why can’t they figure out a way to make things that we use everyday that look pretty, like they used to. Okay, maybe not the mixer, but the other things are wonderful! I love those Bosch coffee grinders.

[Found on CNN]

7. This 60 Minutes Story on the 21st Century Public Library – This made me actual miss being in libraries and it’s been a long time since I felt that way.

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Seven Things I Love (5-16-2022)

May 17, 2022 / / 0 Comments

1. This News Media Source – They had me at their mission statement:

To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.

These people do old-school investigative reporting. The media bias sites say that PROPUBLICA “leans left” but ProPublica has won FIVE Pulitzers so you judge for yourself. (The most common “criticism” is that ProPublica doesn’t cover issues that are of concern of conservative and/or get conservative perspectives. I think with the way things are right now, there’s a reason for that.)

2. This Cool (and Clever) Trick with Coins – Those Brits, always doing stuff like this. But I’m bummed, I have a bunch of English coins but most of them are too old! The only new one I have is the one pence (or penny) coin, which is the copper colored one on the left. I’ll need to stock up next time I’m over (if that ever happens.) Anyone need any Euro coins? I have LOADS of those.

3. These Dancing Trees – Linden trees have an amazing history. They’ve been revered by the Egyptians, the Greeks and even the Catholic Church. They’ve provided ingredients for medicinal treatments to the Gauls. And during the French Revolution more than 60,000 Linden trees were planted and the trees were consecrated as “the tree of liberty.”

The Germans came up with a lovely way to use the Linden trees. There you will find Tanzlinden, or dance lindens, throughout the country. A platform is constructed within the trees, and the Lindens are shaped into the form of a structure/building, often with windows. This creates a meeting place where celebrations, which generally includes dancing, are held. Such a lovely tradition and fantastic way to keep connected to nature.

[Found on Present & Correct]

4. This Laundry Tip – Several months ago I decided to switch to more natural cleaning products including laundry detergent and fabric softener. Finding better options for laundry detergent was easier than for fabric softener. The main reason for this is because my laundry machine doesn’t do well with thicker formulas (which aren’t really good for any washers) and most fabric softeners highlight how thick and oozy they are.

But in doing research about natural softeners I came across a lot of articles recommending the use of vinegar as a fabric softener.

Now I’ve used vinegar in my laundry before – like when I’ve accidentally forgot to put my clothes in the dryer and left them in the washer too long and they got that mildew-y smell – vinegar will fix that right up. But I never noticed that it made my clothes softer. But I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try.

Damn if it didn’t work! I think the reason I didn’t notice it working previously was because I wasn’t using enough (I wasn’t adding it via the little fabric softener slot.)

In addition to it being a great fabric softener (and household cleaner in general), and being very inexpensive (I buy two gigantic jugs at a time at CostCo), there are other benefits to using vinegar in your laundry:

1. Gets rid of limescale (as I mentioned, I add it via the fabric softener dispenser but you can also clean your entire machine by putting it in your detergent dispenser and running an empty load.)

2. DIY Stain Remover

3. Keeps denim from fading

4. Gets rid of lint and reduces static

5. Erase hem lines

From “7 reasons why you should use vinegar when doing your laundry” by Cynthia Lawrence on Tom’s guide

5. This Role Model – Once again, Giannis Antetokounmpo shows his fans, both young and old, how to behave.

After the Bucks lost the seventh game of the playoffs series (to the Celtics), Antetokounmpo was interviewed and not surprisingly was asked how he felt about the loss. Here’s his response.

At the end of the day, we were playing sports and there’s a winner, there’s a loser.” But at the end of the day, this is a learning curve. Nobody promised you’re going to be in the second round [of the playoffs]. There’s people that have never been in the second round; there’s people that have never been in the NBA finals. So, in my first seven seasons, I’m not viewing it as, ‘I lost.’

It was a learning experience, so hopefully, this moment, instead of thinking that we lost something, we can gain and learn in order for us to put ourselves in a position to win another championship.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

We need more of this.

[Found on Inc.com]

6. This Year’s Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 – UKRAINE winning had much more significance than just having the best song. Some are saying they got the sympathy vote, but I think that a much more accurate way to describe what happened is that Europe showed their support for Ukraine.

In a time of war this may seem like a trivial thing, but for a country that needs to feel a national identity; where even the smallest amount of good cheer is amplified because of their dire situation; this nugget of happiness will most likely give many a necessary boost.

7. This Breakfast – Amalfi Coast. Everything about it.

[Found on Everything. Just. Pure. Lovely. blog]

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Seven Things I Love (8-2-2021)

August 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments
  1. Before I get started I wanted to remind everyone that today is an important national holiday. It’s National Coloring Book Day! So be sure to pause and do some coloring at some point (well, tomorrow I suppose, but better than never, right?) And if you don’t have any coloring sheets handy, you can print out a mini-coloring book here courtesy of Dover, one of the oldest purveyors of coloring books and stickers and other fun little artsy publications. OR if you are looking for some unique, irreverent and sassy coloring books, look no further than this list. (Though don’t order them from Amazon, be sure to get them from your local bookseller or Bookshop.org.)
52232533 – woman coloring an adult coloring book, new stress relieving trend, mindfulness concept, hand detail
  1. 1. This Article about the Evolution of Female Superheroes Costumes – Many women have been writing articles lately about the impracticality of costumes for female superheroes – from Wonder Woman’s boots…
  1. to Sue Storm’s boob window…
Marvel’s redesign of Sue Storm’s costume in the 90s immediately comes to mind when sexist costumes are brought up.

to all the other women with skin-tight but barely there outfits. The men often have to wear skin-tight costumes, it’s true, but none of them show a lot of skin.

But more film makers are starting to take comfort into consideration when creating costumes and I suspect that has a lot to do with the fact that more women are involved in the costume making.

For example, here’s a post by Sophia Di Martino who plays Sylvie in the show Loki (which has been my favorite Marvel shows/movies to date.) Sophia is showing how her costume was altered to make it easier for her to be able to breastfeed while working. Kind of pathetic that this is newsworthy/a big deal in freaking 2021 though. Sophia’s costume also covers her body completely (not the way she’s wearing it below obviously, she has it zipped open to show you how she can pump!) It’s much more practical for climbing, jumping, running and fighting off the bad guys.

2. This Video by Olympic Medal Winner Tom Daley – I mean, if there wasn’t already enough to love about this guy – did you know he knits? Could he be any more adorable????

[Found via the Guardian which was sent to me by my friend Kathy – thanks KK!]

3. These Olympics Commercials from Toyota – Honestly, watching the commercials during the Olympics is almost as good as during the Superbowl. (The first one is visually amazing!)

4. This Guest Host on Jeopardy – A LOT of people want Levar to be the permanent host and I’m in that camp!

5. This Bird Installation – Sadly it came down yesterday, and I didn’t get to see it in person, but how cool is this?!?! I love all the art going up around Milwaukee.

Special thanks to my friend Ami Bedi who took the first photo.

Photo by Ami Bedi.
Birds in front of the Milwaukee Public Market
Close up of the Birds

6. This Photo Recreation by Tracee Ellis Ross – Fabulous! (For those who aren’t aware, Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of singer Diana Ross and music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein.) I think this is a wonderful tribute for a daughter to do for her mom, even if her mom isn’t Diana Ross.

Here’s the original from a ’70s editorial in W Magazine (which Tracee Ellis Ross labeled “No. 1: MAMA”) –

Here’s the recreation (which Tracee Ellis Ross labeled “No. 2: ME”) –

7. This Instastory of Florence Pugh Cooking – I love her to pieces! She’s so down-to-earth and FUNNY. And I always learn at least one thing every time I watch one of her videos.

Here’s possibly my favorite video of hers, which was a fancy-schmancy one done by Vogue, where Florence tries 11 different English Foods. Wonderful!

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Seven Things that I Love (7-26-2021)

July 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Restaurant Logo – It’s brilliant! Sadly, it seems the restaurant never opened. This website says, “Sadly due to unforeseen circumstances this project never made it through to launch.” I wasn’t sure if that was because the restaurant didn’t opened or if they chose to go with a different logo (which would have been a huge mistake.) I couldn’t find a restaurant by this name, except in reference to this logo, so I’m thinking the restaurant didn’t get their funding or something like that. What a waste.

2. These Gelato Bars – I found these at my local grocer and man, am I hooked. Admittedly they are a bit pricey (they’re $4 each at Sendiks) BUT if I went out to a gelateria I would easily pay that much. More importantly, they are keeping me from eating an entire pint of the stuff! Here’s the best part though, my favorite bar (the Chocolate light) only has 90 calories and my second favorite, Coconut Breeze, has 170 calories (still not bad.) I think the highest one is Pistachio chocotella at 210 but most of them are between 80 and 170 calories.

3. This Music Video with Bjork – I LOVE, love, love this song! It makes me smile when I hear it. You may think I am crazy or that you’ve got the wrong video when you first start watching but you’ll see what I mean very quickly. “It’s Oh So Quiet” was originally sung by Betty Hutton in 1951. It’s actually the English cover of a German song written by Hans Lang. I can’t decide whether I like Bjork or Hutton’s version better. I think I like Hutton’s version better but Bjork’s video is so fun and she’s so damned cute…

https://youtu.be/BooO0rViUKI

4. This Tweet from Randy Rainbow (a goddess) about Bezos Going to Space – Randy always knows the right thing to say.

In case you need a visual.

This photo provided by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, exits the Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule after it parachuted safely down to the launch area with passengers Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk, near Van Horn, Texas, Tuesday, July 20, 2021. (Blue Origin via AP)

Oh, and the Washington Post and Late Night Talk Show Hosts also had a field day with the hat (well, pretty much everyone did).

5. This Children’s Show – I just found out about this show. How have I not heard of it before?!? (Admittedly, I stopped being a Children’s Librarian in 2007.) It’s been on the air since 2012. The opening was warm your heart – the Neighborhood of Make-Believe!

https://youtu.be/m08BrNDkJjw

6. These Photos of John Singer Sargent Painting Gretchen & Rachel Warren – It’s not often you get to see photos from this era of people actually having fun or smiling.

“Five very informal snapshots of John Singer Sargent painting ‘Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel’ in the Gothic Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1903. Sargent was staying with Mrs. Gardner during a several weeks’ visit to Boston and his hostess allowed him to use the Gothic Room as his studio. In 2018 the Museum borrowed the portrait from the MFA and made it the centerpiece of a small-scale but fascinating exhibit about the painting. For the duration of the show the portrait was set up on an easel on the very spot in the room at which it was painted! There was even a brief catalogue available.” [Found via the Facebook Group the Gilded Age Society]

7. This Suns Fan Who Donated to a Milwaukee Food Bank – Adam Richardson traveled to Milwaukee from Virginia for Game 3 of the championships. An avid Suns fan, he didn’t let his loyalty to his team prevent him from noticing how welcoming and friendly Milwaukeeans are! To thank the residents of the Bucks’ home city, Richardson sent a check to a local food bank.

The comment by the food bank’s VP speaks volumes as to why this is so meaningful.

“We get checks in the mail all the time, but this one was different,” said Scott Marshall, the food bank’s vice president of development and communications. “It’s wonderful that so many people locally want to work with the food bank, but when someone from a different community has a one- or two-day experience in the city and says, ‘I want to give back to the city,’ it means so much.”

‘Go Suns, but thank you Milwaukee’: A Suns fan was so inspired by the city’s hospitality that he donated $1,000 to a local food bank by Grace McDermott of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; July 23, 2021

Word of the Week

I have to admit, I didn’t know that this was a thing. I mean, I’ve heard of people doing it but didn’t know it had become so rampant that it had actually been given a name. And it’s not just being used for pranking/revenge but for extortion too. A man recently died because of a swatting incident because two people were trying to get his twitter handle. His TWITTER HANDLE.

Quote of the Week

Seven Things I Love (6-28-2021)

June 28, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Sorry to miss last Monday – I was traveling. It’s gonna be a busy summer! Hope you had a nice week.

  1. 1. This Documentary about Beatrix Potter – The 45-minute documentary is wonderful and is made even more so by its host/narrator, Patricia Routledge.
  3. Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge is a well-known actress in Britain, particularly famous for her role as Hyacinth Bucket (Hyacinth pronounces it Bou-quet) in ‘Keeping Up Appearances‘ (one of my favorite British comedy series.) Routledge’s acting roles are too numerous to list here. She has been a star on stage, screen, and television for nearly 70 years.

2. This New Show on HBOMax, Starstruck – It’s a good indicator when I binge-watch an entire series in a single evening that a show is good. When I keep thinking about it for days after and talk about it with multiple people, well, that’s a sign that it’s excellent and this series definitely falls into the “excellent” category!

Not only that, it could have been written especially for me – London, Indian leading man, sassy, hilarious, normal sized leading lady (though I’m sure they will refer to her as being “plus-sized” when they write about the show), did I mention LONDON!!! Swoon, swoon, and swoon!

3. This Podcast, ‘You’re Wrong About’ – The podcast has been around since May of 2018 so I’m a little late to the party (it was named one of the ten best podcasts by Time Magazine in 2019) but the topics they discuss are varied and most are historic (albeit more current history). Two journalists, Michael Hobbes, who writes for the Huffington Post, and Sarah Marshall, who is currently working on a book and whose work has appeared in Buzzfeed, The Believer, and The New Republic, review a specific media event and try to explain how the public was misled or came to misunderstand what really was happening/happened. For each podcast they bring in experts to include in their discussion on the topic.

A few episodes I’ve listened to so far – the Anti-vaccine movement, the Electoral College, O.J. Simpson, Tuskegee Syphilis Study and all five episodes they did on Princess Diana.

4. This Artist’s Work – Anna Hoyle‘s work makes me happy. I was drawn to her work for obvious reasons, the faux book covers and piles of books are fantastic. Not surprisingly, Hoyle is Australian. People from Australasia (Australia, New Zealand and some of the surrounding islands) seem to have the greatest sense of humor! The details are what make it so marvelous.

This is my favorite so I bought this print. I get to look at it every day. It speaks to me. I’m not sure what the message is exactly but it speaks to me nevertheless.

5. This Street Art – I was in my hometown of Dubuque last weekend. Over the past five years there has been a surge of street murals popping up in the downtown. As you can see, they are quite remarkable.

‘Ada Hayden’ by Gaia
‘Bird Dog’ by Werc & Gera
‘La Pachamamam Ama Dbq’ by Luis Valle
‘Redemption’ by Gaia (left side)
‘Redemption’ by Gaia (right side)
‘Automate’ by Gaia
RBG by Luis Valle

6. This New Collaboration Between Diverse Dining and CityTins – For my fellow Menopause Broads and anyone else following me who lives in the Milwaukee area…

I have been a fan of CityTins for years. The female-owned company was co-founded by Christin Cilento and Tara Laatsch in 2009. They had the brilliant idea of using those wonderful bar coasters as a way to promote local restaurants. The way it works is you buy a tin full of at least 20 different coasters. Each coaster is worth $10 off from the place that the coaster advertises. Tins are worth minimally $200 but once you’ve used three coasters you’ve paid off the cost of the tin.

The benefit to the restaurants is that it gets people in the door and maybe even gets new customers. I know that when I buy a tin I tend to try all the places (admittedly, I go to my favorites or places I’ve been first.)

I hadn’t heard of Diverse Dining. It “creates a space for people of different backgrounds and cultures to come together to remove barriers, engage in meaningful conversation, and foster togetherness through food, fun, and friendship.” I can’t think of a better program for a time when we, as a country, need to work harder on diversity and anti-racism.

There are different themed tins for you to choose from. I’m definitely getting a Diversitin and a Milwaukee Tin. There are restaurant tins for Madison, Lake Country, and Fox Cities. There is also a special “Staycation” tin for Cedarburg. They make fabulous gifts!

7. This Toaster Museum – TOAST! People that know me will understand my excitement at finding out there is a toaster museum. You know how Tom Hanks is obsessed with typewriters? I think that is fairly common knowledge, right? Well, I’m about that obsessed over toast and toasters. (Though admittedly I don’t have the money or space to have dozens of antique toasters in my home.) Still, looking at this takes my breath away.

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Seven Things I Love (5-3-2021)

May 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This New Rollin’ Wild Video – The first new ‘Rollin’ wild’ film short in THREE years. And was it worth the wait? I think so…. I laughed my buttootie off! Have watched it about a dozen times so far, laugh just as hard every time.

2. This Perfect Man – He really does exist! The White House decided to rebrand Doug Emhoff as “Douglas Emhoff. Apparently they believe the formality is more suited to his position and sounds more “grown-up.” I’m going to guess that all the adult men who go by the name Doug disagree with this assessment. As one late night comedian pointed out, Bernie goes by Bernie and not Bernard and no-one dares to not see him as grown-up and serious. Let’s just hope and pray that the White House doesn’t tell “Douglas” he has to cut back on the PDA! (The Vice President is SO lucky!)

[Thanks to Ann for this one.]

3. These Breathtaking Still Life Photographs – it’s hard to believe they aren’t paintings. If you click on the photos it will take you to each photographer’s website. Or click on the link below to see the original story where I first ran across these works of art.

[Found on ChristieRealEstate.com]

Italian Plums After G.G. 2015 by Paulette Tavormina of New York
Pronkstillife With Pheasant by Jeroen Luijt, who is inspired by the Dutch Old Masters found in his home town of Amsterdam
The hyper-natural yet accessible Reviviscere, part of the Azahar series by Julija Levkova

4. This Podcast about Florence Nightingale – It checks all my boxes: a woman fighting against the patriarchy, British history (particularly the Victorian era), nerds, how information is power – check, check, check and check.

Recently I’ve read about several people/historical events where I thought, why isn’t there a movie or best-selling book about this?!? Then I’d think, wait, maybe there is and I just don’t know about it. And I’d look up the person or event and find out that yes, there was a movie but it was filmed 40 to 50 years ago or it was a made-for-tv special or there was a book but it’s for children or by some author I’ve never heard of.

That’s what happened when I looked up Florence Nightingale. There actually are a ton of books but none that are by well-known historians (there are loads of kids books about her). There is an autobiography called “Notes on Nursing.” I’m sure is interesting but doubt it’s all that readable (after all, she could do many these exceedingly well but writing wasn’t one of her talents.)

There was a tv movie with Jaclyn Smith playing Nightingale. I’m sure THAT was historically accurate. There’s a 1915 British Silent film about Florence. And there was a British film made in 2008 with not a single name in the cast I recognize (which never happens) and the one review it got on IMDB gave it one star and wrote, “One of the worst costume dramas I’ve seen in years! The acting was terrible. the script was terrible, the screenplay was dull and the characters seem like they had been plucked out of the 21st century and thrown back in time! Laura Fraser was useless, good looking, but useless. She plays the strong modern woman type which is totally out of context for the time, and all the male characters are weak.” (By the way, the review ends with “Americans will love it!” I’m not joking!)

I came across which is that Elizabeth Moss is supposedly working on a new film about Florence Nightingale. I hope this isn’t one of those projects that gets announced but never happens but the article I linked is from 2018 and I couldn’t find anything past late 2019. Well, we’ll see what happens. Maybe they’ll be a resurgence of Nightingale-mania!

[Thanks to my friend Kathy for sharing this with me!]

5. This Book about the Classic Restaurants of Milwaukee – This is a bit niche for a general blog, but I think the majority of my followers will appreciate it. Talk about a trip down memory lane! My only complaint is that it wasn’t physically bigger (it’s only 6″ x 9″) because I wish that the photos were larger and frankly I’d like to have seen more restaurants included. But it’s an Arcadia Publishing book and this is the standard size for the majority of their titles. But I suspect it’s the only way to get a book like this published anymore. Sigh. Anyway, I enjoyed reading it immensely.

6. This Reboot of Leverage with the Original Cast (minus one) – I know that people who didn’t watch Leverage won’t be as excited about this as I am (in fact, you probably won’t give a hoot) but I’m over the moon about this news. I was super bummed when they ended the show in 2012. They did tie everything up, but in the four years it aired it built up quite a following and I know we would have been happy for the show to continue for several more years.

But it’s back with the entire cast, except for Timothy Hutton. (I had no idea there had been accusations made against him too.) I’m a bit surprised, although thrilled and relieved, that Aldis Hodge is returning as Alec Hardison. I mean, he’s hit the big time with ‘One Night in Miami’ and he’s also been on ‘City on a Hill.’ The addition of Noah Wyle to the cast must also mean that a return of ‘The Librarians’ is not in our future. Oh well. You can’t have everything.

7. This Miniature Round Bookcase – If you love miniature things you’ll enjoy perusing the entire Instagram for the Daily Mini.

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Seven Things I Love ( 10-19-2020)

October 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

1. This Music – I’ve been working on this playlist for a while and although I don’t think it’ll ever be finished, at least I feel it’s good enough to put on my blog. Over twelve hours of my favorite tunes from the past fifty years (with a few outliers from before I was born.) I hope you enjoy it and feel free to share!

Now, on to the Menopausal Broad Christmas Playlist!

2. This new Mural in Milwaukee by Shepard Fairey titled “Voting Rights are Human Rights” –

3. This Song by Demi Lovato, Commander in Chief – I’ve always been a fan of Demi Lovato but I think she’s underrated as an artist, disregarded as a “pop star.” I know that I thought that until I heard the song Stone Cold. It blew me away, what a voice. I wish she would do more songs like that. She was wasting her talent. But now she’s done this song. Fantastic. And the video, it makes my heart hurt. I hope she’s decided to start making songs with meaning.

4. This history about the Court case that killed “Ladies menus” – how many of you are old enough to have seen a menu or two without prices? Menopausal broads certainly are old enough.

Gloria Allred. Conservatives hate her, even conservative women. They can’t even recognize they are benefiting from her accomplishments. Conservatives don’t attack liberal powerhouses like Allred for what they are doing. Oh no. They attack them for things like being too loud or too aggressive or too unladylike. Because that’s what sexists do when they disagree with a strong woman. It’s a tactic people need to stop condoning.

5. This…. one’s for you Meta…

Baa Ram Ewe.

6. This Eight-Year-Old (who’s now nine), Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, singing the National Anthem – no words necessary.

7. This Fisher Price Museum on Instagram – welcome back to your childhood! How many of them did your family have? The problem for me is that I recognize most of them and I can’t remember if we actually had them, if my cousin’s family had them, or if I saw them in the Toy Story movies. I hate my memory. Either way, it’s warm & fuzzy time and that’s all that matters.

Chatter Telephone from Mattel

Word of the Week

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Five Things I Love (6-22-2020)

June 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

1. This Doritos commercial with Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott – Sam Elliott is 75 years old and still sexy as hell. (And yes, I know that isn’t actually him dancing, but I don’t care. I’m going to believe it is.) Yowzah – I like dancing cowboys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OpuHa2vwdk

2. Sam Barsky – oh to have even an ounce of this guy’s talent, and his patience! So Sam has a fantastic back story which you can read about in the article here, but long story short, this guy knits sweaters of places he’s going to go visit and then has photos taken of himself wearing the sweater in front of the place… well, you get the idea. It’s just so very meta. I love things that are meta (and not just because I have a friend named Meta.) Sam has a Facebook page too.

Also, this particular item is especially for my friend Kathy. Cuz I know you’ll love it.

3. This video on how to incorporate art into your home. The video is of my friend (and interior designer) Emily Winters of Peabody’s Interiors.

4. SistaStrings singing ‘Lift Every Voice‘ – this recording was made at Silver City Studios in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Just glorious. It makes my heart ache, but in a good way.

5. Last, but definitely NOT least, this AMAZING video of People Looking at the Moon. It sounds simple enough. This guy, Alex Gorosh, brought his high-powered telescope outside one night because he was bored and it resulted in a video that will bring tears to your eyes. The reactions are all the same – truly genuine and pure. It makes it even more obvious that people in our country, in the world, have many more similarities than differences.

I’ve been collecting quotes for ages so it occurred to me that I should start ending my ‘5 Things’ with one of these little nuggets of wisdom (or humor). Here’s the first one.

Five Things I Love (6-8-2020)

June 9, 2020 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Artist and mother of two (Stefanie Trilling) who is taking classic children’s picture books and redesigning them for the Coronavirus Era… (You can follow her on Facebook or Instagram!)

2. Virtual Fireflies!–

3. This Internet Dad – I figure there are three categories of people who could find this endearing and informative Dad’s videos both useful and comforting: (1) people who actually grew up without a father, (2) people who grew up with a father but whose father was gone a lot, and (3) people who grew up with a father, whose father was around but whose father was kinda inept. But the fact is, this guy’s videos are what we ALL need right now. Whether you have a great dad who can fix anything or not. His videos just get better and better and the best part, free DAD JOKES!

4. The MKE Unite Chalk the Sidewalk project – held in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum on Sunday, June 7th as part of the fight against systemic racism, people created a strong and beautiful visual in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

5. This Congratulatory Message to the Class of 2020 from the Cast of Schitt’s Creek – SHEER PERFECTION!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=215&v=mMnTwzFxT_k&feature=emb_title

6. These Selfie-Snapping Penguins – these two discovered a camera left behind and curiosity got the best of them. Lucky for us we are left with this wonderful video clip.(Bonus – there’s just too much good stuff this week!)

7. Chef Kobe plays peek-a-boo. Cutest thing EVER… This is what I watch before bed, just to calm down in the evening.

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