Tag: Nature (Page 1 of 2)

Seven Things I Love (6-20-2022)

1. This Grrrl – It’s no surprise that Lizzo the goddess would handle a mistake like an adult.

After the release of the track Grrrls from her upcoming album ‘Special,’ there was a bit of a social media uproar because the lyrics contained some words considered derogatory to the disabled community.

Instead of making excuses and getting defensive or apologizing and then doing nothing about it, Lizzo apologized and changed the lyrics. She actually listened. Shocking!

This is how you do it!

[Found on My Modern Met and NY Times]

2. This Performance Artist / Dada “Dynamo” – She was one of those people who lived many lives in a lifetime. Elsa Hildegard Plötz was born in 1874 in Swinemünde in Pomerania, Germany (now Świnoujście, Poland.) ,

In her younger years she did vaudeville in Berlin and then traveled around Europe leaving a string of lovers behind her. She eventually landed up in NYC where she worked as an artist’s model and she also created her own art, mostly with found objects – sculpture, fashion, performance art, she didn’t limit herself in the mediums she worked with.. She also wrote poetry and it was considered “perhaps the best of any woman’s of our time” by The Little Review.

She made sculptures and costumes from found objects (her wedding ring was a rusted metal hoop picked off the pavement) and wrote experimental poetry, which she also performed. Memorable ensembles included a bra constructed from tomato soup cans and a caged canary; hats tinkling with stolen teaspoons; postage stamps worn instead of rouge. Modesty, whether in the studio or on the street, was for squares. She collaborated with fellow surrealists Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray on the film The Baroness Shaves Her Pubic Hair. Alas only a few stills survived the editing process.

From ‘Sleep with everyone! Be embarrassing!’ – the dada baroness who shocked society by Hettie Judah; The Guardian; 31 May, 2022

It was in NY that Plötz acquired her Baroness title, after a brief marriage at age 39.

She was considered a pioneer in dadaism, she is credited with having invented “Readymade” (though like so many woman in art, she isn’t really given any sort of honors for the achievement – case in point, an article about Readymade that doesn’t even mention her and which is linked to from the article about the Baroness where it saying she invented “Readymade”!)

She was a contemporary of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray and other , were members New York’s literary and art scene, especially those in the Arensberg Circle of Artists. In fact she collaborated with Duchamp and Man Ray on a film called “The Baroness Shaves Her Pubic Hair” (there are only a few stills remaining.)

She’s also considered the first performance artist.

Still, despite all these accomplishments, her male counterparts, who actually, in some cases, were working on concepts thought up by the Baroness, are the ones people know of, whose names people recognize, who are in the museums, who received the credit. Will the historical sexism ever be rectified?

3. These Crocs – These are wonderful sandals – They have great support and cushiness which are the two things most important to me nowadays. They don’t run particularly wide or narrow, which is good because the straps aren’t adjustable (and they don’t come in a “wide” size). I also like that they give me a little height. For decades I tried to hide my height but now that I’ve started shrinking I am actually happy to have a little lift back.

Having said all that, there are a couple things I wish were different…

Ass I mentioned, the straps aren’t adjustable. That’s actually not a good thing. My left foot is slightly bigger because I broke it years ago. The sandals fit me great but when my feet swell, as they are bound to do, especially if I’ve been on them all day, or if it’s hot, or if I’ve had too much sodium, the left shoe gets uncomfortable tight.

I REALLY wish they would have made these flat. To clarify, as I said, I like the height, I just wish the heels were even with the toes. I just don’t think it’s good for anyone’s foot to have all the pressure on the ball of your foot. They certainly don’t do this for men’s shoes.

One last thing, they don’t really “breathe” so your feel will may get hot sometimes.

4. This Sheep – JUST TOO CUTE!

5. This Teacher – Mr. Daniel Gill has kept an empty chair in his classroom for FIFTY years. He’s done this to teach his students the importance of making people feel welcome.

Let me explain. When Gill was a kid he had a best friends named Archie. Archie was black. Gill was white. Neither boy thought anything of this until one day when the two of the went to a birthday party together. They showed up and the mother of the child who the party was for, answered the door. She looked at both of the boys and proceeded to tell them she didn’t have enough chairs. Gill told her that was okay, they didn’t both need a chair, they could either share or could even sit on the floor. She repeated that there wasn’t enough chairs and that is when the boys realized it had nothing to do with chairs, it had to do with the color of Archie’s skin.

So, in the 1980s, when Daniel Gill started teaching, he put an empty chair in his classroom s that there would always be an extra seat available for anyone who stop by – there would never not be enough chairs.

He has taught five decades worth of students lessons of tolerance and anti-racism.

[Found on Today]

6. This Deleted Scene from Love Actually – There are so many wonderful things about this scene, I actually wish it had been left in. It makes me wonder what other deleted scenes are out there.

7. This Ragtime Song – It will put anyone into a better mood. The rag was written in 1913 by Amanda Ira Aldridge, a British composer whose father was African-American and mother was Swedish.

Aldridge studied voice under Jenny Lind and George Henschel at the Royal College of Music in London, and harmony and counterpoint with Frederick Bridge and Francis Edward Gladstone.

After completing her studies, Aldridge worked as a concert singer, piano accompanist, and voice teacher. A throat condition ended her concert appearances, and she turned to teaching and published about thirty songs between the years 1907 and 1925 in a romantic parlour style, as well as instrumental music in other styles. Among her pupils were the children of London’s politically-active Black middle-classes, including Amy Barbour-James, daughter of John Barbour-James, Frank Alcindor son of Dr John Alcindor, and composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’ssister Alice Evans.[2] Her notable students included African-American performers  Roland HayesLawrence Benjamin BrownMarian Anderson and Paul Robeson, and Bermudian-British actor Earl Cameron.[3][4][5][6] In 1930, when Robeson performed as Othello in the West End, Aldridge was in attendance, and gave Robeson the gold earrings that her father Ira Aldridge had worn as Othello.[7] Aldridge also took the singer Ida Shepley under her wing and converted her from a singer to a stage actor.[4] In 1951, African-American weekly magazine Jet reported that she was still giving piano and voice lessons aged 86.[8]

Wikipedia

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Song of the Week

Seven Things I Love (5-30-2022)

  1. 1. This Unburnable Book – You’d have to have your head buried in the sand not to have heard about all the book banning going on around the U.S. It’s scary stuff and very reminiscent of what went on in Germany prior to and during WWII.
  2. Margaret Atwood is bad ass in this video created to show-off the new FIREPROOF limited edition Handmaid’s Tale being auction off at Sotheby’s. It was aired at the PEN America Literary Gala and all proceeds from the sale will go to support PEN America’s work defending freedom of expression.

[Found on The Cut / New York Magazine]

2. This History Today Article Written about Biographies of Tudor Women – In short, the author of the article discusses how distorted the life stories of women in the Tudor Period are because historians “see them chiefly through the eyes of men”.

Frankly, this could be said about more than just the women of the Tudor times. (She says specifically “early modern history” but I’d say pretty much all history.)

I’m looking forward to reading Suzannah Lipscomb‘s book when she finishes it.

Clockwise from top: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon,
Kateryn Parr and Jane Seymour. Lithograph, c.1860. akg-images.

3. These Instructions Left for Airbnb Guests – A friend of mine has been doing some road tripping with her husband and they’ve stayed at a few quaint airbnbs. She sent this to me – I love people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

4. This Artist’s WorkLainey Molnar’s Instagram is definitely worth following. Her cartoons cover what women (ALL women) deal with on a daily basis.

[Found on My Modern Met]

5. This Restaurant Owner in Texas – no words needed.

6. This History & Explanation of Menopause by Samantha Bee – I love Samantha Bee’s show but unfortunately none of the services I subscribe to have TBS. If you google “where can I stream Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” it says you can watch it on HBOMax. When I read this I was thrilled because I have HBOMax, but for some bizarre reason they only have the first three seasons even though there are SEVEN seasons. I don’t understand streaming services with their single seasons or partial libraries of a show or their getting rid of classic movies from their collection.

But I digress. This was excellent, not surprisingly.

And here is a second part, and interview with Dr. Jen Gunter, author of The Menopause Manifesto (highly recommend.)

7. This New Bird Watching Show on National Geographic – Remember Chris Cooper, the black bird-watcher who was the victim of a white woman who called the police on him because he told her to put the leash on her dog? (The woman compounded the horrifying situation by pretending she was being attacked and also treated her dog horribly.)

Any, Christian (he’s going by that on the show) Cooper got a new gig as the host for a bird-watching show on the National Geographic Channel. And for once karma actually works. (It doesn’t hurt that he’s clearly super intelligent AND good looking.)

[Found on NPR}

Word of the Week


Quote of the Week

Kids Who Die
Written by Langston Hughes in 1938

This is for the kids who die,
Black and white,
For kids will die certainly.
The old and rich will live on awhile,
As always,
Eating blood and gold,
Letting kids die.

Kids will die in the swamps of Mississippi
Organizing sharecroppers
Kids will die in the streets of Chicago
Organizing workers
Kids will die in the orange groves of California
Telling others to get together
Whites and Filipinos,
Negroes and Mexicans,
All kinds of kids will die
Who don’t believe in lies, and bribes, and contentment
And a lousy peace.

Of course, the wise and the learned
Who pen editorials in the papers,
And the gentlemen with Dr. in front of their names
White and black,
Who make surveys and write books
Will live on weaving words to smother the kids who die,
And the sleazy courts,
And the bribe-reaching police,
And the blood-loving generals,
And the money-loving preachers
Will all raise their hands against the kids who die,
Beating them with laws and clubs and bayonets and bullets
To frighten the people—
For the kids who die are like iron in the blood of the people—
And the old and rich don’t want the people
To taste the iron of the kids who die,
Don’t want the people to get wise to their own power,
To believe an Angelo Herndon, or even get together

Listen, kids who die—
Maybe, now, there will be no monument for you
Except in our hearts
Maybe your bodies’ll be lost in a swamp
Or a prison grave, or the potter’s field,
Or the rivers where you’re drowned like Leibknecht

But the day will come—
You are sure yourselves that it is coming—
When the marching feet of the masses
Will raise for you a living monument of love,
And joy, and laughter,
And black hands and white hands clasped as one,
And a song that reaches the sky—
The song of the life triumphant
Through the kids who die.


Song of the Week

I love this entire album. Can we still say that? Album?

Seven Things I Love (5-16-2022)

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 (6-14-2021)

  1. 1. This Happy Baby Penguin – though I disagree with what the person wrote on the post. I don’t believe that a baby penguin can ever be too excited for cuddles!
  1. 2. This Impersonator – Mary Elizabeth Kelly’s expertise is as a “mouth impersonator.” When you watch the video you’ll see what she means by that. Visit her Instagram – she has so many videos and each one is more amazing and/or hilarious than the next.

3. This Tweet for Pride Month – Genius!

4. This Little Guy – He is going to be famous someday!

5. This Video on How ‘I Spy’ Books Are Made – I’m too old to have enjoyed ‘I Spy’ books as a kid (obviously) but having been a children’s librarian for 12 years I was able to live a second childhood and appreciate many things that most people my age only know about if they had kids (which I suppose most do.)

I’m sure, like me, those familiar with Walter Wick’s work have never given a single thought as to what goes into making one of his books. I had NO IDEA – just wow!

6. This Beaded Art Installation by Liza Lou titled “Kitchen” – “The 168-square-foot installation, a monument to unrecognized women’s labor, started off as a riff on Pop Art, as seen in the razzle-dazzle brand-name cereal boxes and cleaning products scattered throughout the scene. But over the years of making the work, Lou became increasingly activated around feminism and started to see beads as a metaphor for the female experience: ‘small, pretty, diminutive, decorative — those sorts of things that are kind of pejorative that we have around femininity, around women,’ she said.”

It took her five years to complete it. Absolutely gorgeous!

[Found on Hyperallergic]

Liza Lou, “Kitchen” (1991-1996), glass beads, wood, wire, plaster, and artist’s used appliances, 96 x 132 x 168 inches (collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London)
Liza Lou, “Kitchen” (1991-1996), glass beads, wood, wire, plaster, and artist’s used appliances, 96 x 132 x 168 inches (collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, image courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London)
Liza Lou, “Kitchen” (1991-1996) (detail), glass beads, wood, wire, plaster, and artist’s used appliances, 96 x 132 x 168 inches (collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, image courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London)

7. The Statue of Liberty’s “Little Sister” – France is sending us a gift again, a second Statue of Liberty! This one is 1/16th the size of the original, weighs almost half-a-ton, and will stand on Ellis Island opposite her “Big Sister.”

“The statue symbolizes freedom and the light around all the world,” said Olivier Faron, general administrator of the CNAM (Conservatoire national des arts et métiersIn English: National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts). “We want to send a very simple message: Our friendship with the United States is very important, particularly at this moment. We have to conserve and defend our friendship.”

[Found on CNN]

The value of freedom is central to the new Lady Liberty statue. Credit: CMA CGM Group

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Seven Things That I Love (5-17-2021)

  1. 1. These New Quarters – Can you believe that these are the first U.S. coins with women on them? Now I know what you’re going to say, you’re going to say, but wait, there was the Susan B. Anthony silver dollar but come on, that wasn’t really a serious coin. How many people use silver dollars? They just did that to placate us.
Coins celebrating the writer and poet Maya Angelou, left, and the astronaut Sally Ride will be issued next year as part of the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program. Credit: United States Mint

2. This Documentary about Rita Moreno – I’ve always loved Rita Moreno. She reminds me a lot of my Mom’s best friends but I also think her time on The Electric Company, well, she’s one of those celebrities who you feel like is part of your family, do you know what I mean?

I watched this as part of the Milwaukee Film Festival (you could still buy a ticket, it’s virtual and goes until May 20th). There will be several options for you to see it in the future:

  1. On June 19th the film is going to be shown in theaters nationally
  2. PBS is going to be airing it as part of its current (35th) season of American Masters (probably in the fall or early next year)
  3. And it will be available to stream on the PBS app once it airs (the PBS app is free)

So, depending upon how badly you want to see it (and whether you are already vaccinated) you can seen it next month or you will have to wait a little bit but either way I highly recommend seeing it.

3. This Rental Property – It’s the home of The Royal Tenenbaums! One of the best of Wes Anderson’s films. $20,000/month is a lot of money but there are six bedrooms so if you got five of your friends to join in, $3333/month for a place like this in NYC would actually be kind of a bargain.

As found on Curbed:

Set on the fictional Archer Avenue (real address: 339 Convent Avenue in Hamilton Heights), the 1899-built Flemish-meets-Romanesque-Revival house was built by Jacob D. Butler (who’s also behind the Neo-Romanesque Lincoln Building in Union Square). It’s roughly 100 feet wide (on the side facing West 144th Street), with large bay windows on one end and a turret on the other. Inside: 6,000 square feet cover five levels (the bottom three of which have elevator access), with six bedrooms, six gas fireplaces, and over 50 windows. Plus an inordinate amount of original character: antechambers, stained-glass transoms, closets with skylights, and ornate mantelpieces carved with urns and flowers. It’s renting furnished for $20,000 a month.

4. This Video for the Song ‘Pretty’ by Ingrid Michaelson – Michaelson is a big fan of the show ‘Stranger Things’ and each of the songs on her album ‘Stranger Songs’ is inspired by something from the show. I think this is (IMHO) the best song and I love the video – so empowering.

5. This Anti-Smoking Sign from 100 years ago – Sadly it shows how difficult it is to fight against major companies who have access to politicians. Think about the fact that there actually were people 100 years ago who knew that tobacco was bad for us (not that you needed a rocket scientist to figure it out) and the tobacco industry and even members of the medical profession would promote smoking as being safe. The first warning labels didn’t show up on cigarettes until 1965 with the “The Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965.”

6. This Instagram – Illustrator Mauro Gatti believes that positive attitudes are the key to reducing anxiety and good mental health. After the year that we all want to forget he started “The Happy Broadcast.” In addition to his Instagram he has a website and a podcast. Check it out for a daily dose of positivity!

[Found via The Modern Met]

7. This AMAZING Video of a Gorilla Mama Watching a Human Mama Holding Her Baby – I LOVE THIS!!! (The ongoing commentary is both entertaining and annoying… LOL.)

Word of the Day


Quote of the Day


Seven Things I Love (3-1-2021)

Happy Women’s History Month!

  1. 1. This Video on the Accents of All Fifty States – Myself, I know I don’t have an accent. Well, at least I didn’t think I did (except that one time I had a bunch of people stare at me when I ordered a pop instead of a soda but that was more dialect than accent.) But then a few years ago I went to this conference in California. The first day I was there, before I had been introduced to anyone else, before I had even checked in, I was waiting in the lounge with some of the other conference attendees while they slowly checked us in one by one. I was chatting away with several of the people, most of whom were from California.
  2. After about five minutes the woman across from me said, “It’s so to be with someone from Iowa again!” I looked at her and said, “Wait, how did you know I was born in Iowa?” And she replied, “You accent! It’s great hearing that Iowa accent again.” I couldn’t believe it. Not just because I thought I had some sort of universal (and semi-classy) accent but because I had been living in Wisconsin twice as long as I had been living in Iowa. Though I moved to Wisconsin when I was 18 so I guess the accent was already pretty much permanent. You know what they say, people don’t lose an accent unless they move by 16 years of age, at the latest.

2. This Dance Compilation – I’ve seen a lot of compilations like this but when Kevin Bacon, THE Kevin Bacon, posted it on his Facebook page and wrote, “What a compilation! This might be the best of all dance numbers. Feeling inspired to watch one of the greats tonight. Are you with me?” I thought – I need to watch. And he wasn’t kidding. It’s FABULOUS!!!

3. This Nature Photographer, Tim Flach – this guy is a genius.

4. This Interview of Jason Mantzoukas by Seth Meyers – Been watching a lot of the talk shows – Seth Meyers (probably the most religiously), Colbert, Trevor, Drew Barrymore, the two Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) and James Corbin (the last three not as regularly as the rest). During the pandemic I’ve seen scads of interviews and I must say I don’t think I’ve seen one as entertaining as this.

5. This Canadian Artist, Tom Thomson – I recently discovered this artist because of a show called the ‘Murdoch Mysteries‘ (which I obsessed with) and now I’m looking for everything I can, not just about his art but about his life too. It turns out there was quite a bit of mystery surrounding his death and that just makes this all the more alluring.

IN THE NORTHLAND, WINTER (1915-1916) by Tom Thomson

6. These InStyle Virtual Elevator “Entrances” for the Golden Globe Awards – you can see more of them here but my favorite was Nicola Coughlan’s (and not only because she was wearing a fairy princess dress):

7. This Photographer, Kristina Makeeva – her work is truly magical. (Trying to only choose a few to highlight was incredibly difficult, you’ll want to look at more of her photos here, trust me!)


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Have a LOVELY Week!

Seven Things I Love ( 2-1-2021)

1. This Tap Dance Performance – no words necessary.

2. This Geode that Looks Like Cookie Monster – for some reason I can’t get this Instagram link to post so I’ll just put the link here. It includes an awesome video of the geode!

3. This New Movie on Netflix, The Dig – based on true events, this is exactly the kind of movie I love. When I finish watching a film and become obsessed with reading everything I can find about the event, looking up to see what was real and what was put in for dramatic effect, I know it was good.

And that most definitely happened with The Dig. One site I like to start with for historical movies is History vs. Hollywood. Not only do they review a bunch of questions about a film – did this really happen, was this true, etc., but they show photos side-by-side of the actors compared to the real-life people.

For example, here is one of the main characters, Mr. Basil Brown played by Ralph Fiennes. Mr. Brown would have been around 51 at the time the Sutton Hoo artifacts were discovered in 1939. Ralph Fiennes is currently 58 so he was probably 56 or 57 when this movie was filmed. Seems like they did a pretty good job here with the casting and of course Ralph Fiennes is an exemplary actor.

Here is another main character, Edith Pretty played by Carey Mulligan. Edith Pretty would have been around 56 when the Sutton Hoo artifacts were discovered. Carey Mulligan is currently 35 years old. Carey was excellent in the role but perhaps they should have considered an older actress? I don’t know why they always do this.

Another person I really liked (perhaps because I love the actress who played her) was Peggy Piggott played by Lily James. Mrs. Piggott was actually only 27 when she worked on the Sutton Hoo excavation. She went on to become a renowned archaeologist and prehistorian under the name Margaret Guido (her second husband’s last name.) She had quite the life. I think I’ll be reading more about her. Unfortunately the only photo the website found (below) is clearly not from when she was in her 20s or even her 30s or 40s for that matter. Not ideal for comparison.

Here’s a painting I found of her that is more around the age she would have been in the film:

Griffith, Frank; Mrs Margaret ‘Peggy’ Guido (Mrs Cecily Margaret Piggott); Wiltshire Museum

And here is a photo I managed to dig up that was included in a slide presentation. I had to do a screenshot to get a copy of it. I’m guessing the person who runs the History vs. Hollywood site didn’t want to do that. Plus, she’s not looking at the camera, but I think it would have been a little better for comparison than a photo of a woman who is probably in her 60s or maybe even her 70s.

One last thing, here is some wonderful information from the British Museum on the artifacts, with photos:

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/eighty-years-and-more-of-sutton-hoo/

4. This Incredible Herman Miller and Michael Ford collaboration – the iconic Charles & Ray Eames lounge chair, always one of my favorites, taken to a whole new level. Part of a new series called “Conversations for Change,” Ford intends on inserting more activism into the design world, something this is much needed.

“In his first piece of furniture, Michael Ford has remixed the popular Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman (ELO) introduced in 1956 by husband and wife, Charles and Ray Eames as a “special refuge from the strains of modern living” with handwritten names of victims of racism in the US as a stark reminder that these Black men, women, and children were not afforded the privilege of refuge – those who died at the hands of racial actions.”

Individuals who wish to have the chair can make donations and those who make donations over $1000 have an opportunity to be awarded the ELO (or Eames Lounge & Ottoman.) There is only one.

Here’s the really cool part – “Donations from the campaign will fund The Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County and The Hip Hop Architecture Camp both located in The State of Wisconsin. The two organizations will also create a national #TAKEASTAND grant to support organizations taking a stand against social injustices.”

5. This New Version of the Song “Popular” from the Musical “Wicked” – who doesn’t love Kristin Chenoweth? And damn, that woman isn’t aging! [Warning, this song is going to stick in your brain for days.]

6. This Article on the History of Women on Wall Street – the astonishing and frankly appalling efforts by men to keep women from trading on the stock market and the determined and resourceful women who succeeded nevertheless.

7. This Poem called “Earthrise” by Amanda Gorman – from 2018. Because we much protect the earth for future generations like hers.


[BONUS] This Guide to Determine Which GOP Conspiracy You Are….
Mine: Anderson Cooper can shapeshifter into a food stamp on a socialist dare!

Word of the Day


Quote of the Day

Happy birthday Langston Hughes – February 1, 1901


Have a FANTASTIC Week!

Seven Things I Love (1-4-2021)

1. This History of Chestnut Trees – this actually is something to both love and hate. I hate the story behind why we’ve lost the vast majority of the American Chestnut trees in North America (not surprisingly it had to do with some wanker deciding to import a dozen Chinese Chestnut trees to the US from Japan. Because there will always be people who have to have bigger, better, new.) There’s further details on the blight here.

But what I love is history, and the history of the Chestnut tree is fascinating and extensive. These were enormous trees, strong, hearty, and they provided for everyone and everything that lived around them. Another thing I love is that there are people working to bring back the American Chestnut. One organization in particular, the American Chestnut Foundation, leads the show and they are getting close. According to this article from 2019, the final stage/cut should take place this year and then they should be able to start repopulating the Appalachian Forests with blight-resistant American Chestnut trees. Hope!

2. This Article on the Regency Design of Bridgerton – Have you watched Bridgerton yet? If not, get thee to the television and start streaming thy Netflix!

My favorite era in British history has always been the Edwardian era (and I mean design-wise) with the Tudor era in a close second. BUT I must say, this show made me start to wonder if I should rethink that.

3. This Incredible Photograph of the Chicago Skyline – it really does look like flames are shooting up!

4. This Video of Robots Dancing to “Do You Love Me?”Boston Dynamics is one of the most advanced Robotics company in the world. They have a huge following on social media and for good reason – their robots are incredibly impressive. They created this video for their fans for a holiday treat. AMAZING! (full disclosure – I’m a robotics nerd.)

5. This Incredible Bridge – my friend Kathy sent me this photo. It’s the Golden Bridge in Vietnam. We were trying to decide whether we loved it or found it disturbing. Truthfully, it’s both but in the end we decided we loved it much more than we found it disturbing. I think it’s all a matter of your upbringing and how you look at it.

6. These Pandemic Words – Here’s an article that includes an interview with Ben Zimmer who is the chair of the American Dialect Society’s New Words Committee. They discussed not only the winning words – COVID was the word of the year – but also some of the nominees. Here are a few that I liked:

gleethreshing (ph) the opposite of doomscrolling, reading some good news for a change.

oysgezoomt (ph), being Zoomed out. You’re fatigued by being overexposed to Zoom.

Very interesting too about the term BIPAC. Need to read more about that.

Here’s another article on how the newly developed pandemic words are helping people cope.

7. This Short Film ‘Opera Performed by Animals’ – it’s from a few years ago but it makes me as happy now as it did in 2019. And HEDGEHOGS!!!


Word of the Day


Quote of the Day

Have a MARVELOUS week!

Seven (+2) Things I Love (11-30-2020)

1. This Discovery of the Fountain of YouthScientists in Israel claim they have been able to reverse the aging process simply using oxygen. GIMME SOME OF THAT!

2. These Cardamom Cookies from Unna Bakery in New York – I found these locally a while back but couldn’t remember where I bought them. Damned menopausal brain fog. I checked to see if I could order them online and yay, I could! LOVE these cookies. They are my favorite treat to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon. A box contains five packets of two, all individually wrapped, so you don’t have to feel obligated to eat the whole package just to keep them from going stale (which is what I tell myself when I do that.) They are just the right amount of spice and sweet. In my opinion, the perfect cookie. The Swedes do so many things right and baking is on that list to be sure.

There are other flavors to choose from too. I ordered some Coconut Oat Cookies to try and they were different but equally good.

3. This Recipe for Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts – thanks to my brother Chuck for sending this to me. I’m a big fan of Camila Styles and I’m subscribed to her e-newsletter, but lately my inbox has been inundated so I’m missing a lot.

This girl (me) can’t get enough Brussels sprouts. Sadly, this girl also is on a blood thinner which means she has to pace herself. Well, you know what Julia Child says, “Everything in moderation.” (FYI, the full quote is, “Everything in moderation… including moderation.”) You can find the recipe by clicking on the photo or here.

4. This Book Review (and Interview) of Henry Winkler’s Newest Book by Master Crocheter Jonah Larson – they are all so damned adorable! Note Henry Winkler’s pillow behind him – love it! And Jonah Larson is a wunderkind! You can read more about him here and here.

5. This Cookware from GreenPan – I’ve bought all my GreenPan Cookware from Food52 but it’s available in many places including World Market, Kohl’s, and Amazon. One of my favorite pieces, which I use ALL the time, is the 12-Inch GreenPan Venice Pro Nonstick Ceramic Everyday Pan (pictured right). It’s no longer available at Food52 but they still have it at World Market. And there is a slightly smaller 11-Inch version called the Chatham Nonstick Ceramic Everyday Pan at Kohl’s for significantly less.

From the GreenPan website:

GreenPan is a Belgian brand with an international reputation. It’s the brainchild of two school friends: Jan Helskens and Wim De Veirman.

Upon discovering that traditional non-stick pans released toxins when overheated and used PFOA during the manufacture of the coating, they set out to create a new alternative.

After a long search, they found the perfect material for their range: a ceramic coating called Thermolon™.

With the biggest challenge out of the way, the duo put an expert team together and had a lot of pleasure in designing cookware that looked beautiful, performed brilliantly and made cooking even more of a joy.

10 years later their pans are loved around the world.

6. This Test Flight – I may not be a fan of Elon Musk (I think he ‘s batshit crazy) BUT I cannot deny he has vision and his company is achieving astonishing things. Besides, my nephew works at SpaceX so as long as he’s there I know that they they must be cool!

7. This Music Video (and tweet) – Daniel Stewart is Patrick Stewart’s son. The music video is awesome!

8. This Virtual Chess Game Against Beth Harmon (at four different ages!) – I ADORED ‘Queen’s Gambit’ (along with everyone else) and now I’m obsessed. Chess.com has developed this clever online experience tied in to the hit Netflix series. I finally got brave enough to try to play 8 year-old Beth. It was a draw because we ran out of moves. I thought my brain was going to explode though it was working so hard.

9. These Edible Christmas Ornaments for Outdoor Trees – I’m a Hallmark (and now Lifetime too) Christmas movie junkie. This year Hallmark has an incredible number of new movies. One of my favorites is called, Christmas with the Darlings. In addition to the usual christmas cookie making/baking scene that occurs in every Hallmark movie, in this one they made animal-friendly ornaments and I thought it was brilliant. I will definitely be doing this next year! There are two different links. The link on the photo below will take you to a recipe for the birdseed ornaments pictured. The link at the beginning in bold takes you to an article with a variety of ideas and links.


Word of the Day
(is actually the Merriam-Webster Word of the Year for 2020)

If you click on the graphic below it will take you to an analysis of the use and significance of the word pandemic for the year.

Quote of the Day

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and stayed safe!

And I don’t want to rub it in so I’ll let Charlie say for me what I can’t say myself….

Seven Things I Love (11-23-2020)

1. This Millennial Explaining Why People Use the Word “Verklempt” So Much(I need to mention this article is two years old. Not that it matters.) Things like this makes one feel old. This young whippersnapper clearly never saw “Coffee Talk with Linda Richman” until she started researching this etymology.

You know, as a Gen-Xer, I know I was/am fairly absorbed in the decades of my salad days. Most people do this. But I think our generation grew up experiencing the pop culture of previous generations more than current gens. I mean, any of you watch the Cisco Kid or Three Stooges or Laurel & Hardy movies on Sunday mornings because the only other alternative was wrestling or religious programming (apparently Saturday & Sunday morning programming was the least expensive.) Where I grew up in Iowa, that is what aired. The major network programming was preempted by devotional television shows.

Of course there was some new shows like the ABC Afterschool Special (usually the topics were rather heavy and sometimes even traumatic or miserable.) This show did not age well and there’s probably a reason why we preferred shows from previous decades…

And there were the shows of Sid and Marty Krofft, Zoom (the amazing thing about watching these intros is you will remember all these kids as if they were friends from grade school), and Clutch Cargo, but overall, kind of slim pickings compared to the today. In fact, when try to find a list of popular kids television shows of the 1970s it will almost always include shows from the 50s and 60s.

(Side note: here’s a wonderful video about a guy who had an original talking candle prop from the Side & Marty Krofft show ‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ that he was trying to sell at auction.)

Myself, I was a big fan of Gilligan’s Island, really, who wasn’t. That show originally aired from 1964-1967. I was only TWO when it ended. The same with Leave it to Beaver, Bonanza, I Love Lucy (by the way, if you haven’t seen the Grace Adler version of Vitameatavegamin, you must), The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, even The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle – these were all shows of the 1960s, some even of the 1950s. They were shows we were able to watch in rerun because there wasn’t four bazillion new shows on so we shared in stuff our parents had enjoyed.

Not that every skit that SNL does is worth seeing but there is certainly a huge number of things over the past two decades that have had significant impact on pop culture and it’s kinda sad that millennials will never know the references.

So why did verklempt become such a popular descriptor? Is it because we’re living in the age of rampant millennial hyperbole? Or does verklempt just ring true in many situations? Is its meaning versatile enough to cover everything from Star Wars references to ailing dogs getting free hamburgers?

The origins of verklempt trace back to the Yiddish farklempt, which refers not to any old overwhelming emotion but to a particular one: depression and grief. Farklempt is the past tense of farklemen, which means “to grip, press” and has roots in the German word verklemmen, “to press, squeeze,” which is related to the German verklemmt (“uptight”). And, following verklempt even further back in time, it leads to the Old English word clam or clom, meaning to “bond” or “fetter.”

But it wasn’t until the ‘90s when we started seeing verklempt being used in pop culture. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when it started, but Mike Myers professed his verklempt-ness as Linda Richman in the 1992 Saturday Night Live sketch, Coffee Talk, about — you guessed it — Barbara Streisand.

I mean, how sad is it that generations of people will never see this??? Oy Vey, what a tragedy! What else has this generation missed?

2. This Animated History of the Lego Company – truly fascinating and the animation is fabulous.

I love the creativity of the fans of LEGO. For example, this creation done by LEGO artist Ochre Jelly

3. This Music Video from Naughty Boys and Beyonce – before I even saw the video I loved this song but then I watched it and I was blown away. It stars two free divers named Alice Modolo and Guillaume Néry underwater for the entire video. It’s amazing, you have to see it to believe it.

4. This Animal: Leaf Sheep – the only animal that can photosynthesize. I mean, how freaking cute is this???

5. This Illustrator’s List About Why She Misses Going to the Public Library – First, thanks Meta! Second, you will want to be sure to click on post so it takes you to Instagram because there are NINE items on her list and to see them all you have to be able to scroll.

6. This Reboot of Animaniacs (on Hulu) – I’m not a child of the 90s but I still loved this show (probably because I’ve always been a child at heart.) And this reboot is NOT a disappointment.

7. This Photo of Flowers as Bees & Butterflies would see them...

Because I’m always a little skeptical nowadays (as one should be, especially about things found on the internet) I wanted to make sure that the above photo had some scientific verification or at least find a reliable source that verified that insects see UV light. And I found something on PBS, which I deem a reliable source.

[Bonus] This Season Finale by John Oliver – I mean, the ending is amazing and Adam Driver is AWESOME!!! Fuck you 2020!

[And one more BONUS for Fans of The Crown]
This Series of Impressions of All the Characters from Season 4….


Word of the Day


Have a MARVELOUS week

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