Ramblings of a Menopausal Broad

Tag: public libraries (Page 1 of 2)

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 (7-18-2022)

July 19, 2022 / / 0 Comments

1. This Cartoon – Fight Extremism and Save Democracy!

GIRL POWER!

2. These Mini-Histories – These beautiful little videos (I feel like they should be called filmlets) about specific cathedrals and castles in the UK include a brief history narrated by Evelyn Edwards.

You can see the entire series here.

@evelyn.edwards1

Game of Thrones- the brothers Seymour edition. The Tudor Era has so many characters and stories! #tudors #henryviii #janeseymour #castle #castletok #history #historytime #historytiktok #historybuff #elizabethi

♬ original sound – Castles, History, Ruins

[Found by my friend Jeta, thanks Jeta!]

3. These Photos of the Stars – You’ve probably already seen these photos someplace but I’m including them nevertheless. The first photos were released from the James Webb Space Telescope and they are freaking amazing!

To really see how incredible these photos are you can visit this interactive webpage that NBC created where they have side-by-side comparisons of photos taken by Hubble vs. Webb.

This is the most spectacular of the photos…

This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.
Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.

And these are pretty damned impressive (especially when you look at the NBC interactive site.)

This side-by-side comparison shows observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from NASA’s Webb Telescope. This scene was created by a white dwarf star – the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view. In the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, the white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike. The same star appears – but brighter, larger, and redder – in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger.

One last thing, as usual the twitter-verse has had some fun with something that went viral. Here’s an article from Hyperallergic that has compiled some of the best memes about the James Webb Space Telescope but here’s one just to lure you in…

[Found on NASA.gov]

4. This Drink Tip – I saw this video on the Milwaukee Journal Facebook Page about summer mocktail drink tips (I LOVE Kristopher!) One of his suggestions was to use frozen fruit to keep drinks cold. Genius! Who likes a watered down drink and as Kristopher mentions, you get a healthy snack to boot.

The only draw back is that there may be a limitation on which fruits you can use based on size.

Somehow I ended up finding these and I think they are an equally good solution if there are any fruits that you like that may not work as well frozen by themselves.

Here are the instructions on how to make them.

[Found on Feel Good Foodie.net]

5. This Dad Joke – Everything about this, Wil Wheaton, the facial expressions, the Golden Girls mug – I love him.

6. These Limited Edition Japanese KitKats – Let’s have a tea party!

7. This Book Wheel – Titled “Good as Gold” and created by artist Donald Lipski, this sculpture is located in the Kansas City Public Library.

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Seven Things I Love (6-13-2022)

June 14, 2022 / / 0 Comments

1. This Photo – It was taken as a 50th Anniversary photo for CBS. Apparently if you can name five or more of the people in this picture you are old. I can name 69. I’m torn between feeling proud and thinking maybe I should be putting a deposit down on a room at an assisted living facility. How about you, how many can you identify? (Hint, there are a bunch of Waltons – I never watched that show or knew any of their names except for the Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and John Boy.)

If you go to this person’s page you can find a version of the photo that you can enlarge plus a full list of who’s who (the one below is relatively illegible.)

2. These Kohlrabi Noodles – I can’t say these work as a substitution for pasta (don’t think of them that way) but they are delicious! I sautĂŠed some mushrooms and then added the pasta and sautĂŠed that until it was cooked “al dente.” Then I added some chicken that I had poached earlier (cut up of course), some tomato sauce, some cooked English peas (not overcooked), salt and pepper, and the final key ingredient was Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset, which is one of my favorite go-to spice mixes. It was delicious!

[Found at Trader Joe’s]

3. This Combination of Two Dance Styles – Bharatanatyam (a dance of Tamil Nadu in southern India) and hip-hop!

[Posted by my friend Ami on Facebook]

4. This Article on What To Do If You See a Pride Display in Your Library – I’m sure, like me, you’ve been reading more and more about the awful, AWFUL people who have been campaigning to ban LGBTQ+ materials from public schools and public libraries* or politicians who have tried (and in many cases successfully) passed legislation that targets the LGBTQ+ community. They call themselves “Christian” and claim they are doing it to “protect” children but ultimately they believe they can decide what is morally right or wrong for everyone (disregarding the fact that when it comes to public entities, it’s the law that matters, not their religious moral higher ground.)

ANYWAY – simply put, the article says when you are at your local public library and you see a pride display be sure to tell the librarians “thank you.” I’m going to write a letter to my local library board.

* A group called CatholicVote is currently pushing a campaign called “Hide the Pride” where they are encouraging people to go to public libraries and checkout all the books in the Pride displays at their local libraries.

“The group says ‘recent polls’ show ‘American moms and dads do not want their children exposed to sexual and “trans” content as part of their education.’ The group says parents can inconspicuously check out materials and place them away from children at home.”

(Even worse – “Moms for Liberty” has a publishing branch of their organization and they are trying to push

[Found on Book Riot]

5. This Story on Random Acts of Kindness – I read this right after I had seen a similar story about two women who surprised a young man that worked at a drive through with a gift of $1500 for a new car. The thing is, as much as it was wonderful to see the young man’s astonishment turn to joy, the 10 minute or so video was obviously done to get the two women hits on their social media/YouTube channel. The more I watch the more it nauseated me – so manipulative.

These stories, on the other hand, are OG people doing things just because it’s the right thing to do. And yes, Nicole Cliffe may have found a way to get more activity on her Twitter by doing this but honestly, I’m okay with it. Click here or on the image below to go to the article to read all the posts.

[Found on My Modern Met]

6. This Photo – Could you get any more 1980s? Cyndi Lauper and Pee Wee Herman playing miniature golf, 1984.

7. This News – Just found out that Starstruck has been renewed for a THIRD SEASON! I’m so happy! I mean, honestly, I thought it finished after the second season. And actually, I would have been okay with that because unlike so many other (shitty) shows, Starstruck does the wise and polite thing and wraps up its seasons in the finale.

None of these guys know if they’re going to be renewed until months after the show is aired. Cliffhangers are just plain rude. If a huge number of people are watching a show for 8 or 10 or 12 weeks, why is a freaking cliffhanger even necessary? If the show is good enough, people will come back to watch it. If it isn’t good enough, well, the writers are being lazy IMHO.

Getting back to Rose Matafeo (who plays Jessie, the lead role in Starstruck) and Nikesh Patel (who plays Tom, her love interest) – I want to be their BFF.

If you have HBOMax you must watch this show. If you don’t have HBOMax I strongly suggest you get it. At the minimum subscribe for a month or two or at least get the 7 day trial (you can always cancel.) There is SO MUCH to watch on here – Starstruck (obviously), Julia, Our Flag Means Death, Minx, Not So Pretty, George Carlin’s American Dream, The Janes, Studio Ghiblio films, Harry Potter movies, Criterion Collection films …. I could go on and on.)

P.S. HBOMax has scads of films from

[Found by Ann L. Thanks Ann!]

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Seven Things I Love (4-18-2022)

April 19, 2022 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Shower “Tool” – I’ve used a loofah/pouf for decades. Originally I used natural sponge loofahs but I stopped after reading they were breeding grounds for bacteria. I switched to nylon poufs, which are a little easier to keep clean, but always felt guilty about the environmental impact, especially because they are so big and they need to be replaced every few months since they stretch out so much.

When I read about LuvScrub exfoliating scrubs, which have been used in West Africa for decades, they sounded like a potential compromise.

And they are. They may not be made out of a natural material but they are made out significantly less nylon than poufs. And there are other reasons why they are better than both loofahs and poufs.

  • They make may skin feel wonderful. It’s much smoother and softer. I feel it does a better job exfoliating than my pouf. Not sure why, it’s kind of the same material, but it does.
  • I love that you can stretch it, like you would a towel, to scrub your back. I had been using a separate brush with a long handle, now I only have the one thing in my shower.
  • This thing is going to be awesome if I ever get to travel again (which may never happen now that that dumb-ass Florida judge got rid of the travel mask mandate. I hope to god that get appealed, and quickly.) It’s small and compact and will be so easy to pack and it dries quickly.

[Found on Refinery29]

2. These Knitting Projects – I’m still just a beginning knitter but a girl likes to dream…

Details on the projects:

  1. “Foolish Virgins” Mittens – created by Lacesockslupins (knitting), this person used this scarf as inspiration. FANTASTIC!
  2. Fantailed Goldfish Hot Water Bottle Cover – created by MimiCodd (knitting), Mimi wrote that it’s going to be a Christmas gift for someone, “probably” (that made me smile). I would totally keep it. When I was in India in 2019 we stayed in an inn that gave the guests hot water bottles. It was heaven. Americans should use them more.
  3. Horse Sculpture – created by Psyche-dog (crochet) and many, MANY others for the National Waterways Museum. “500 – 4” granny squares were made by the museum crochet group plus yards of curly braid for mane and tail. All stitched to topiary frame by me. Made to celebrate the value of horses in the history of England’s canals. The horse will be displayed at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK from the end of June 2017 for a few years, hopefully.” EPIC.
  4. Chair Cover – created by Ponnekeblom (crochet) for their daughter using loads of leftover yarn. Why pay hundreds of dollars for a reupholsterer?
  5. “Knit” Apple Pie – created by Knitsforlife (knitting), technically it’s the top crust. This person is one dedicated knitter.
  6. “A Very Warm Book” or A Knitted Book Cover – created by Craftivore (knitting). They had me at EX LIBRIS.
  7. Flashdance Chair Sock/Legwarmers – created by The KnittyStew. Gotta love people who have a sense of humor! I’m thinking these might have people sliding around but that might not be such a bad thing. At least they’ll protect the floors for a bit.

[Found on Ravelry]

3. This Basic Income Program for Artists in Ireland – 2000 artists will be chosen to receive €325 (about $355) per week with no restrictions. Ireland wants to make the idea of the “starving artist” a thing of the past (though I’m not sure how far $350/week will go). Still, it’s a start. They will be trying this out for three years.

There’s good reason to support the arts – it has a positive impact on society and communities that have strong arts programs thrive. And, though this isn’t necessarily good for the artists themselves, it has been discovered that as public art goes up so do property values.

Meanwhile, over in Dublin, a legal battle over street art is brewing.

Mural by Nick Harvey in Galway, Ireland – photo by Hardiman’s Galway

[Found on Hyperallergic]

4. These New York Libraries Giving Access Nationally to Fight Censorship –

New York Public Library

Books for All – The New York Public Library is giving anyone who wants to sign up free access to a variety of commonly censored titles through their free reading app, SimpleE. You can download the app on your iOS or Android device and read the “unbanned books” through May 31st (must be 13 years of age.) There is no wait time!

Books UnBanned – Brooklyn Public Library is doing one better. They are offering cards to any young adult in the country, age 13 to 21, for an entire year. The service is meant to be used to supplement and fill the gaps of what YAs can’t get in their own communities. Additionally (and this is super cool) “Those 13 to 21, who access the free eCard from BPL, will be able to connect with their peers in Brooklyn, including members of BPL’s Intellectual Freedom Teen Council, to help one another with information and resources to fight censorship, book recommendations and the defense of freedom to read.”

If I were a teen right now I would totally be doing this. (BPL also has a collection of frequently censored titles with no wait times.)

To apply for the card, teens can send a note to BooksUnbanned@bklynlibrary.org, or via the Library’s s teen-run Instagram account, @bklynfuture. The $50 fee normally associated with out-of-state cards will be waived.

[Found on Time Out]

5. This Iris Apfel Ring – Sigh. Ms. Apfel teamed up with H&M and put out a fantastic collection that was also affordable. It became available in the U.S. last Thursday and SOLD OUT in hours – before I even had a chance to read the Refinery29 article. UNFAIR! There are many things I would have loved to have bought but this ring is the one thing I really, REALLY wanted.

Photo of some of the pieces from the collection including Iris Apfel wearing THE ring.

[Found on Refinery29]

6. This Bio-Series – Bio-series, I think that’s what this would be called – so many different names for the various types of television series nowadays.

This new show, on HBOMax, is about Julia Child as she works through the first year of her cooking show being on the air. Overall it’s fairly historically accurate but of course nobody knows exactly what people say or do in private, so the writers extrapolated some of it using biographies, articles, documents, letters, recordings, and even Wikipedia. And a few things they made up but it totally works.

It’s simply called Julia and that is a perfect title. I LOVE THIS SHOW! It’s exactly what I think people need right now – upbeat, cheerful, funny, and hopeful. After all, we all know that she’s going to succeed.

If you don’t have HBOMax you may want to get it just for this, or at least get the 7-day trial and watch it (though if you do that, wait until May 5th since that is when the last episode will be airing.)

Also, if you have or get HBOMax I recommend watching Our Flag Means Death and Minx.

Sarah Lancashire as Julia Child

7. This Man, Who Won the Lottery and Used the Winnings to Start an Environmental Foundation – This is what I’ve said I always wanted to do if I ever won the lottery! If you don’t believe me I have multiple friends you can ask – there’s a group of us who all want to do the same thing.

A retiree in France won the second highest lottery in French history €200 million ($217 million) and used the money to start a foundation that concentrates on revitalizing forests, and preserving and regenerating biodiversity. He also has money set aside for supporting family caregivers, which is amazing. You can read more if you click on the image below.

[Found on MyModernMet]

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Seven Things I Love (4-4-2022)

April 5, 2022 / / 0 Comments
  1. 1. This Artist – I read about the Sir John Soane Museum on Atlas Obscura and have wanted to go ever since. I mean, any museum choked full of memorabilia and curiosities is in my wheelhouse. But despite my desire and numerous trips to London, I have yet to managed to visit.

Before I even knew that one of Gretchen Scherer’s paintings was a room in the Soane Museum, I was drawn to her work. I would love to see them in person – according to the Hyperallergic article, even though she has meticulously recreated the room down to minute details, she added a few details to get across personal messages. Those need to be seen in larger versions of the image to be visible.

Still, they are lovely. The square piece in the slideshow below is called “Sir John Soane’s Museum, Library and Dining Room” and it is the largest piece in her exhibit at Monya Rowe Gallery.

[Found on Hyperallergic]

2. This Hero – The Soldier who told the Russian warship to “Go Fuck Yourself” and then was captured along with a dozen of his fellow Ukrainian Soldiers has been released and received a medal for his bravery.

3. This Tea – a friend of mine brought me some of this tea when she came over for lunch last week – WOW!!! I have been looking for a herbal tea that I can drink that wouldn’t require me to add a ton of sweetener. And since I’m not using artificial sweetener anymore that basically means honey or raw sugar or agave nectar.

This fits the bill, in fact you won’t need any sweetener at all. And when it says it’s naturally sweet it’s completely true. There is no fake sugar in here and yet it’s still rather sweet. Well, sweet and spicy.

I still love a good cuppa (black tea with milk and sugar) but it’s really nice to have a second option now.

[Found by my friend Edell – thanks E!]

4. This Drug Disposal Program – When I first ran across this (can’t remember when or where) I decided to request the free pouch just for the heck of it.

I used to not have to worry at all about drug disposal because the municipality where I worked had a drop box right in the village hall where you could drop off meds (both prescription and OTC.)

I think a lot of people don’t realize how bad it is to toss medications. It’s obviously really, REALLY bad to put them down the drain or in the toilet, but it’s also bad to put them in the garbage. Eventually the containers could break open or decompose and the medications could get into the groundwater – it’s really no different than putting them down the drain/toilet.

That is why proper disposal is so important. I got rid of most of my extra meds right before I retired but over the past three years I’ve managed to accumulate some expired pharmaceuticals. When I decided I finally had enough I ripped open the package I received from Deterra.

I had thought that the package was going to be a pouch where you could mail in your meds for disposal. Oh no. This was SO EASY. All you need to do is take all the medications out of the bottles, rip open the top of the pouch, drop them all in, fill the pouch about half full with water, water 30 seconds, close the pouch (shake it a little to get the water/stuff inside to mix up with all the pills) and then TOSS IT IN THE TRASH!

The stuff in the pouch makes the pills safe for the environment. You can read more about it and order a free pouch here.

5. This Seinfeld Clip – This is from 1995. Ukrainians have always been bad ass.

6. This Career – I want to be a personal librarian! I suppose to do this you have to live in a place where there are a lot of rich people.

Private Librarian, Christy Shannon Smirl

[Found on Los Angeles Daily News]

7. This Photo from the 1980s – Cyndi Lauper playing miniature golf with Pee Wee Herman. This says all that needs to be said about the ’80s and it’s why it’ll always be my favorite decade.

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Art by Rick Frausto

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.

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Seven Things I Love (11-23-2020)

November 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

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 NĂŠry 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...

This is what flowers look like to bees and butterflies.Insects see UV light,unlike humans from interestingasfuck

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

Seven Things I Love (10-12-2020)

October 13, 2020 / / 0 Comments

1. This Children’s Librarian – who set up the best display ever the day after the Vice Presidential debate.

2. These Celebrities teaching us American Slang – I grew up in Iowa where we have no accent and no slang! Mwah ha ha ha ha ha. So not true. In fact, my Mom, whom I adored, used to say things like “be sure when you worsh the dishes in the zinc that you don’t break anything.” And my dad still says the words “Worshington” and “garuntee.” And then there was the pop/soda incident of 1984. I’d rather not talk about it.

A few years ago I few out to a conference in California and the majority of the attendees were native Californians. I’d never met any of them. The first evening I was sitting across a table from a woman who was sort of staring at me. Understand we hadn’t introduced ourselves at this point and weren’t wearing name tags. We’d only arrived and checked in and were having cocktails while we waited for our rooms. After people started getting called to go check-in she came over and sat next to me and said, “It’s so great to talk with a fellow Iowan again!” I asked how she knew I was from Iowa. I hadn’t even said all that much (at least for me) and after all, I hadn’t lived in Iowa for about thirty-five years. She said, “Your accent!” I have an accent? Go on, I don’t have an accent. She insisted I did.

Turns out she had lived in California for quite some time but was born and raised in Iowa as well. As you can imagine we became fast friends. I still can’t tell the difference between her “accent” (or my “accent”) and the accents of the other Californians attending the conference. Apparently I am no Henry Higgins.

ANYHOO, this video is fun to watch. Here are all the people that show up in it and exactly where they were born and/or raised.

  • Jennifer Garner was born in Houston, Texas but raised in Charleston, West Virginia
  • Olivia Munn was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  • Keegan-Michael Key was born in Southfield, Michigan and raised in Detroit
  • Matthew McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas
  • Adam Devine is actually a fellow Iowan, born in Waterloo, Iowa but grew up in Omaha, Nebraska
  • E-40 is from Vallejo, California
  • Michael Sheen is, of course, not from America but is from the beautiful Newport, Wales
  • Jon Hamm is from St. Louis, Missouri!!! (A branch of my family tree hails from there.)
  • Chloe Grace Moretz was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Ike Barinholtz is from Chicago, Illinois
  • Tiffany Haddish is from Los Angeles, California
  • Jason Bateman is NOT from the Ozarks but was born in Rye, New York.
  • Laura Linney was born in New York City (did you know her father was a prominent playwright named Romulus Linney?)
  • Julia Garner was also born in New York City, in the Bronx.
  • Jennifer Lawrence was born in Indian Hills, Kentucky near Louisville
  • Joel Edgerton was born in Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia (and his reaction to Kentucky slang is wonderful.)
  • Mark Wahlberg was born in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Adam Sandler (interesting detail about bodegas) is a Brooklyn, New York boy (not a surprise)
  • Idina Menzel was born in Manhattan, grew up in New Jersey until she was three, then moved to Syosset, New York on Long Island.

3. This Book, Emeralds of Oz by Peter Guzzardi – honestly, there is a lot we can learn from the Wizard of Oz books (plural). Also, have you ever read Wicked (and the sequels) by Gregory Macguire. They really are genius. The first one is best, they get less so as you go along but the vocabulary is almost Tolkien-level of brillance.

This fabulous graphic is from QuietRev.com, where you can find an interview with author Peter Guzzardi. QuietRev.com is the website for the Quiet Revolution and Susan Cain. Their mission is “to unlock the power of introverts for the benefit of us all.” That’s certainly something admirable to strive for.

4. This Cartoonist for The Guardian, Tom Gauld – I’ve been a fan for ages. His cartoons generally have a very literary slant. I have a couple of his books and am asking Santa for another one for Christmas!

5. This Reenactment of the iconic four-way phone scene from Mean Girls by four young women with disabilities. The intent is to show that people don’t have to be defined by their disability. It’s wonderful!

6. This Famous (infamous) Merrie Melodies scene, Leopold… The Leopold that they keep whispering about is a real-life conductor, Leopold Stokowski.

I also loved it when Merrie Melodies went completely into the adult arena, making cartoons for grown-ups. This cartoon has all sorts of famous people from the era: Peter Lorre, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo (Garbo wore size 8AA shoes but between her own self criticism and Hollywood standards the rumor few around that her feet were too big), Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable and many more. How many can you name? Oh, and LEOPOLD again!

7. This Young Girl – about five years ago (damn, time flies) my library system staff went to one of the local county fairs to promote libraries. They did this a lot, library advocacy is part of their thing. In addition to handing out materials about what our system libraries provided and they wanted to do something interactive so they put together this simple little activity using pool noodles and artistic letters laminated onto cards so that they would stand up. People could create any message they wanted and have their photos taken and my system put the photos up on social media. There were TONS of them but this one really caught my attention for two reasons – first, because of the word that she choose and second, because of the way she’s holding up the word, there’s just something so powerful about the way she’s standing. I just love everything about it.

Word of the Day

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

Seven Things I Love 8-17-2020

August 18, 2020 / / 0 Comments

1. The Technicolor Fashion Show Scene from the original version of the movie ‘The Women’ (1939) – I suspect more people are familiar with the 2008 film version of ‘The Women’ starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett-Smith. The casts of both films are entirely women, you never once see a man, though there are constant references to them or a man will call on the phone.

The video below isn’t the entire scene unfortunately, it’s just the beginning – the full fashion show lasts about six minutes and includes the styles of designer Adrian. The film is in black & white but briefly switches to technicolor for this one scene. Apparently they filmed the fashion show in both black and white and technicolor. It was only shown on television and on DVDs in black & white but Turner Classic Movies restored the technicolor fashion show and how marvelous that they did!

2. Curbside Larry (Thanks KK!) Most places have someone like this. A person who does such obnoxious commercials that they become endearing. In Milwaukee we had a pitchman named “Crazy TV Lenny” who now owns an e-bike business called “Crazy Lenny’s.” I think it’s BRILLIANT how they used it to promote library services!

3. This Hallmark Movie – ‘Wedding Every Weekend,’ the latest Hallmark movie, has finally included an LGBTQ couple. YIPPEE!!! And it was NOT done subtlety either. This is now my favorite Hallmark movie (well, non-holiday Hallmark movie, I still really LOVE Christmas Getaway.)

Congratulations to new brides Vicky (Carmel Amit) and Amanda (Makayla Moore)

4. Thomas Fitzpatrick: The greatest “Hold my beer and watch this” ever – Picture it, Sicily, 1956… wait, that’s wrong, not Sicily, it was New York City. Mr. Thomas Fitzpatrick makes a bet that he could land a plane outside the bar that he was drinking in, a couple hours later he does exactly that, in a stolen plane no less. Years later when someone refuses to believe him he even does it again! (Found on MessyNessyChic)

5. Rebecca – it won’t premiere on Netflix until October 21st but I am so excited about this upcoming movie I can barely see straight. The novel Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier has been one of my favorite books since high school. I also love the old black & white movie with Joan Fontaine and Lawrence Olivier (1940.) It was my first introduction to the actor George Sanders. Most people only know his voice – he was Shere Khan the Tiger in the 1967 Jungle Book. His voice is beyond sexy, he really does sort of growl. His role in Jungle Book was just too perfect.

Getting on to the new Rebecca – good lord, Armie Hammer is playing Maxim de Winter. SWOON! And Lily James plays the unnamed woman who narrates and becomes the second Mrs. de Winter. Kristin Scott Thomas is Mrs. Danvers, Keeley Hawes (The Bodyguard and Durrells in Corfu) is Beatrice Lacy and Sam Riley (Maleficent and Radioactive) is Jack Favell. It’s all my favorite people in one film!!! Pinch me!

Rebecca: (L to R) Armie Hammer as Maxim de Winter, Lily James as Mrs. de Winter. Cr. KERRY BROWN/NETFLIX

6. Suffragettes – tomorrow (August 18th) will mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. That’s right, it was only 100 years ago that women were given the right to vote in our country. New Zealand was actually the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. They did that in 1893, although there were actually some women on the Isle of Man (geographically part of the British Isles but not part of the UK) who were able to vote from 1881. New Zealand women were allowed to vote though they could not run for office.

There are two important dates to celebrate in 2020 – June 4th was the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment and August 18th is the 100th anniversary of its ratification and being added to the Constitution.

Want a fun activity for you and/or any kids you may know? Here’s Flat Susan B. (a twist on Flat Stanley), color her in and share her with friends, or use her as a bookmark, or take her along wherever you go and have her show up in photos that you post on Instagram! Flat Susan B is AWESOME! (And remember, coloring is therapeutic.) If you click on the image below you’ll go to the printable version.)

Woman’s suffrage protest on Capitol Hill in 1917.
PHOTO: UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES

And remember, even though women won the right to vote in 1920, there is still a lot of problems with inequality in this country, which became very obvious with this summer’s BLM protests.

Sadly, the American’s Suffragette’s appear to won their battle at the expense of their black sisters. And the Equal Rights Amendment, though approved by both the House and the Senate in the early seventies never was able to get ratified by enough state legislatures before the deadline SEVEN years later. The deadline was extended for four years but still, the required of number of states was not met so Congress considers it dead. Several groups have tried to get Congress to remove the deadline but nothing has happened. Can you believe though that we, as a country, couldn’t get enough states to ratify the ERA in the first place???? Let’s see what happens in November, shall we?

P.S. if you haven’t seen the film Suffragettes yet, now’s the time!

7. The National Park Service’s ‘Recreate Responsibly’ Campaign Posters – the NPS began the campaign in April and it is genius. Humor really is the best way to get people’s attention, get things to go viral, and to get people to actually read things! The most recent poster, ‘Wildlife Petting Chart,’ is obviously in response to the recent bison incident (hint, don’t approach a baby bison when its mama is looking on.)

Ten* Things I Love (7-20-2020)

July 20, 2020 / / 0 Comments

1. If We Treated Teachers Like Pro Athletes – Key & Peele – this is from a few years ago but SOOOOOO relevant right now.

2. This Ingenious Hummingbird – Paraguayan Conservationist Bianca Caroline Soares snapped this photo back in September of 2019. She had been observing hummingbird nests for over a year but when she saw this one she knew it was something unique and special.

“The hummingbird went on to have two chicks, and Soares was able to capture the trio under one roof—literally. The flexible nest expanded to fit the new additions and the leaf was able to cover them all.”

From ‘Clever Hummingbird Builds a Nest Complete With a Giant Leaf Roof‘ by Sara Barnes, My Modern Met, July 14, 2020

3. This Tutorial by Telenovela star Kate del Castillo on How to be an Action Star – She is HILAROUS! I had tears in my eyes. I am planning on subscribing to Peacock TV I’m just waiting for my smartTV to get an app.

4. These three incredibly talented beauties – Norah, Yarah & Rosa known as Let it Happen (thanks to my friend Jeta for originally sharing this video). Just wow.

5. Hear Ye, Hear Ye – The Queen has her own Gin. There is pretty much nothing more perfect (and British) than this. Sadly it has already sold out. It is/was only available in the UK but I was hoping to get a bottle when I went over next year. Sigh.

The Queen is famous (infamous?) for having the same four cocktails every day.

From Vanity Fair (and Food & Wine):

And Food and Wine uncovered another detail about the Queen’s daily intake: the 91-year-old reportedly consumes four cocktails a day. And why shouldn’t she!? Let’s run through what they are:

Her first drink, per former royal chef Darren McGrady, enjoyed shortly before lunch, is a gin and Dubonnet with a slice of lemon and a “lot of ice.” Sure, this sounds about right. A classy and posh and powerful concoction.

Then, during lunch, she’ll have a piece of chocolate and a glass of wine at meal’s end. (That we have been eating lunch all these years without closing with a piece of chocolate and glass of wine now makes us feel utterly foolish.)

O.K., then, also at lunch, the Queen drinks a dry gin martini, according to her cousin Margaret Rhodes. So, yes, we are now at three drinks by roughly 1 p.m.

Her final drink of the day? It actually doesn’t come until she’s going to sleep: a glass of Champagne before bed.

6. Quarantine Public Library – this delightful little site currently houses over 40 one-page pdfs that you can download and fold into little “books.” They are really more like works of art. I made a donation of $30 and donated the mega-pack of the entire collection in one zipped file. If you donate $10 you can print out your own library card and there is also a general $5 donation level. Funds collected from the Quarantine Library are being directed to EveryoneON, which is a non-profit that connects low-income families to affordable internet service and computers. That is a non-profit I can absolutely support!

7. Urzila (pronounced Ursila like ….) Carlson – this South African comedian who does “not identify as fat” is my new favorite funny person. Her show on Netflix called ‘Overqualified Loser‘ is a hoot. Some might say she overshares, but then, isn’t oversharing really a subjective thing? For myself, I’ve always felt that society needs to stop being so freaking uptight and talk more about stuff. If we didn’t try to hide things that are part of life like menopause and mensuration and puberty and various stages of aging we’d all be more informed, less ashamed, and people that needed might need help would get it.

Anyhoo, back to Urzila, come on, how could a menopausal broad not adore a female comedian who is a lesbian, has a South African accent, and who does not identify as fat? Pinch me!

8. This video of Billy Joel playing a discarded piano – no words necessary.

9. Crabtree & Evelyn La Source Hand Cream – I have been using this for years. In fact, a while back one of my staff told me that my office smelled like this cream and it always reminded her of me. Which made me happy. It’s a nice scent. When I went to look for a link for this I started to panic because as I typed “Crabtree & Evelyn” into Google up popped “Crabtree & Evelyn closing down” – EEK! It appears that the retailer hasn’t survived the online sales surge so it did shut down its brick & mortar stores. So sad. But it relaunched in the middle of last year as online only and so this product is still available. Though sadly it has been repackaged and is not available in the larger size that has a pump. Still, I may need to stock up just in case.

10. Henry Cavill building a Gaming PC – seriously there is nothing hotter than a guy working on electronics. Is anyone else watching ‘The Witcher?’ I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing him in the new ‘Enola Holmes‘ movie!

*This week there was just too many things so I upped it to TEN things but this is not going to be a standing thing (I don’t think.)

Have a LOVELY week!

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