tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53666518341581301272024-03-13T08:25:33.977-05:00Paper BaublesBook reviews and recommendations from your own personal librarian, and an increasing variety of other topics.Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.comBlogger141125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-20269354503516644062012-05-31T18:36:00.002-05:002012-05-31T18:36:42.549-05:00A follow-up to the previous post, in which I apologized for being a crafter, not an artist:<br />
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To practice any art no matter how well or badly is a way to make your soul grow. <br />So do it.<br />Kurt Vonnegut<br />Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-36305461397684364522012-05-29T20:14:00.001-05:002012-05-29T20:14:32.175-05:00Do I still hate butterflies?Moths scare me the way spiders scare some folks. Butterflies creep me out. Why, lately, have I been making things with butterflies on them?<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_50VhIVhopA/T8VzSjjuLaI/AAAAAAAAAZw/TDNQtqL7cF8/s1600/butterfly5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_50VhIVhopA/T8VzSjjuLaI/AAAAAAAAAZw/TDNQtqL7cF8/s320/butterfly5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Note the highly specific word, "things." Crafts. I've been making crafts. For most of my life I haven't done crafts, and I definitely haven't done art. I sing, I write, I take pictures. I haven't done art or craft, and for years have been such a dedicated reader that I never had time to craft. (You can't craft and read at the same time.) I confess I've been scornful of many craft projects made from ugly materials with ugly results. But I now must admit to crafting. It's a step up from scrapbooking (which I also do) on the coolness scale, but many steps down from art.<br />
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But get this! The last time I shopped for supplies I went to the art store instead of the craft store, because I didn't like the brand of gel medium I had. I have new vocabulary words like "gel medium" and I can even tell the difference between one brand and another. Makes me feel pretty cocky and arty.<br />
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I've been making a pair of collages for my sister's birthday. I used to make a lot of collages just to play with images that spoke to me. Then I got hooked on the more artistic aspects of collage. Using paint and ink as well as illustrations and pictures. Making texture. Techniques to make complex, layered backgrounds. The thing is, I love doing it. It absolutely sings to me.<br />
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There is nothing like creating, even at my lowly level. Making craft, making art, keeps my mind focused in a creative way. It keeps me from obsessive worry, too. When I go for a walk, I think about whether the collage is done or if it needs one more butterfly. A laughable -- well, but I'm not calling it a worry, am I? It is so much better than worrying about money. I do enough of that. <br />
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Somewhere along the line, meaning got sidelined in trying to work with form, composition, and balance. I certainly never meant for that to happen. It was just more than I could manage. Hence the butterflies. They have a compact form that can be placed in the foreground for focus or in the background for balance. They are a godsend to someone like me who is trying to make something worth looking at, but is not able to make good representational art. You can find pictures of them and cut them out and put them on the collage.<br />
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Butterflies are beautiful and colorful and a potent symbol of change. They're also a cliche, and most important, they are not my personal symbol of change. The civil defense drill is my symbol of change. It goes off every month, evoking a moment of reflection on where I am in my life and what has changed, or not changed, since last time I heard it. If I were to collage it would I put two speaker horns on top of a large pole? The ultimate obscure reference. <br />
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It gives me a new respect for people who transcend cliche in art, at whatever level, and make meaning.<br />
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<br />Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-67433096780388787542011-01-26T17:54:00.000-06:002011-01-26T17:54:23.392-06:00One night at the reference deskI had an interesting night at the Reference Desk of Mighty Library last night, so I started jotting down the questions. It was a night that showcased the variety of questions we get in one of the departments of a multi-story downtown library. <br />
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- I need help with a job hunt.<br />
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- I need Immigration Forms printed. What is Immigration Form I-551? How much does it cost to apply?<br />
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- Please cancel my computer reservation.<br />
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- The computer is "acting crazy and jumping around."<br />
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- I'm trying to fill out a job application for CSL Plaza. Several tries with no luck. I finally got her to show me the envelope she was holding. CSL Plasma. Problem solved.<br />
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- Where does my color print job go?<br />
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- The new $5.00 bill doesn't work in the printer coin box. (A known and aggravating problem.)<br />
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- I need a book about Ph levels in the body.<br />
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- I'm looking for a casino gaming job at Mystic Lake.<br />
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- I need a renter's rebate credit form.<br />
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- What is a Lidoderm patch? What is Polysubstance?<br />
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- Please cancel my computer reservation.<br />
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- I don't have my library card with me, and I don't have ID, can I still get on the Internet? Sorry no. Really. Really. Really.<br />
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- Printer out of magenta toner.<br />
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- Job won't print.<br />
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- Do you have an area with special job hunting resources?<br />
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- I was on Crag's list . . . [long story.] Had closed Internet Explorer window, needed to get it back.<br />
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- Did anyone turn in a pacifier?<br />
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- Need info about personal loans and grants from the government.<br />
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- What was the name of the women's dress shop in the 1970's on the corner of 9th and Nicollet?<br />
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- Do you have environmental impact statements from 1984?<br />
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- The color is off on the 4th floor printer. Can you reprint this for me free on this floor?<br />
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- Looking for primary sources (government documents) on the Little Rock 9.<br />
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- Need career info and textbook/study info on Physical Therapy<br />
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- Help me find this book: "Danger and Survival: Choices about the bomb in the first 50 years."<br />
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- The computer is not recognizing my USB drive.<br />
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- Asked customer to take cell phone to lobby or use a quieter voice.<br />
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- Spoke to customer about cell phone voice volume again.<br />
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- Asked customer to use headphones while listening to music.<br />
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- Looking for an online fashion design school.<br />
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- Looking for an online course for MN real estate license.<br />
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- Looking for books about labor law. Actually was looking for a particular book, "State of the Union; a century of American labor."<br />
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- No library card. No ID. Sorry, can't give you your library card number without a picture ID. Really. Really. Really. Really. Really.<br />
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- Need the phone number and any info for Springboard foundation.<br />
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- I'm looking for some books that I left out on the table last night.<br />
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- I'm looking for a phone number for Mr. L--- O--- , maybe near Crookston. His wife's name is Mary.<br />
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Meanwhile, my colleagues at the desk were handling as many questions, including several government document questions, a library tour, and question about a source for Venetian blind cordage, and a lengthy set of questions about the national debt and the Minnesota state debt.<br />
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A busy night at the library!Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-81449499743984234252010-11-03T18:51:00.001-05:002010-11-03T18:56:18.814-05:00The dream of the novelTom Chatfield’s “Do writers need paper?“ (Prospect). As the comic novelist Julian Gough told me: <br />
<blockquote>“One of the jobs novels used to do was to create a universe for characters, one that felt believable and complicated. But the complexity of life at the moment is such that no writer is able to keep up. The novel once had a dream of itself as this universal art form that could describe to the world to everybody in a way that everybody could understand, and that no longer rings true.”</blockquote>Up until the minute I read this, I still had that dream, that the novel could describe the world to everybody in a way that everybody could understand. Now I may be convinced otherwise. It was a startling thought!<br />
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I think the better a book is, the better it succeeds at that dream.<br />
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But I find it freeing to think that novels no longer have the burden of being universal.<br />
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Link to original post on <a href="http://blog.booklistonline.com/2010/10/29/weeklings-the-novels-dream-of-itself-e-books-on-campus-googles-poetry-translations-prolific-authors-prison-books-and-sterlings-gold/">Book Blog</a>!Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-37996643382038229502010-10-02T13:19:00.000-05:002010-10-02T13:19:10.743-05:00Malcolm Gladwell on Social MediaAuthor Malcolm Gladwell on Twitter, Facebook, and social activism in the <a closure_uid_13hvk3="2444" href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all" target="_blank" title="New Yorker: Small Change"><em>New Yorker</em></a>:<br />
<div><blockquote><div>[Social media] is simply a form of organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger. It shifts our energies from organizations that promote strategic and disciplined activity and toward those which promote resilience and adaptability. It makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact. The instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo. If you are of the opinion that all the world needs is a little buffing around the edges, this should not trouble you. But if you think that there are still lunch counters out there that need integrating it ought to give you pause.</div></blockquote></div><a closure_uid_13hvk3="2445" href="http://www.casualoptimist.com/" target="_blank">The Casual Optimist - Books, Design & Culture</a><br />
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This passage from Malcolm Gladwell, quoted in "The Casual Optimist Blog," is a refreshing change from the good/bad dichotomies that usually arise when discussing social media. (OK, a little good/bad. . . ). What do you think?Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-76888152276153025402010-06-03T19:16:00.001-05:002010-06-03T19:16:56.333-05:00Ratio: the simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/TAhFcDDTGaI/AAAAAAAAAWs/ZwQ7tXv6Dco/s1600/ratio-cover.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/TAhFcDDTGaI/AAAAAAAAAWs/ZwQ7tXv6Dco/s320/ratio-cover.gif" width="217" /></a></div>I went through a long drought during which I couldn't get interested in books, but lately I've been reading up a storm again. I haven't felt moved to blog until I found Michael Ruhlman's <a href="http://blog.ruhlman.com/2009/04/ratio-the-simpl.html">Ratio: the simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking</a>. This is such a neat concept, and I've been pursuing this idea for years. Ruhlman gives us the ratio, by weight, of ingredients to each other in doughs, batters, sausages, sauces, custards, and more. The only hurdle to using the ratios is that you have to have a good quality scale to measure the ingredients. Even though I've been pursuing this idea for a while, I really hesitate to buy a $25 scale that I may not actually use that often. (Enthusiasm: high! Follow-through: iffy.) Ruhlman makes the point that volume measurements are inconsistent:<br />
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"A cup of flour can weigh anywhere between 4 and 6 ounces. This means that if you are making a recipe calling for 4 cups of flour, you might wind up with a pound of flour in your bowl or you might end up with 1 1/2 pounds. That's a 50 percent difference in the main ingredient, which will have a substantial impact on the finished product."<br />
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OK, OK, you've convinced me, Mr. Ruhlman, and I may never use the ratios in your book, but I still like knowing what ratios of ingredients combine to make cookie dough, and how it differs from biscuit dough.<br />
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The actual ratios occupy only two pages in the introduction. In the rest of the book he explains the theme and variations. Here are several, to make things more concrete:<br />
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Bread = 5 parts flour : 3 parts water (plus yeast and salt)<br />
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Pasta dough = 3 parts flour : 2 parts egg<br />
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Pie dough= 3 parts flour : 2 parts fat : 1 part water<br />
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Cookie Dough = 1 part sugar : 2 parts fat : 3 parts flour<br />
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Remember, though, before you rush in, it's weight, not volume.<br />
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Once you know the ratios, you can vary the recipe. Cookies? You can add vanilla, or almond extract, or melted chocolate, or chocolate chips and nuts, or lemon zest and ginger. You can use brown sugar or white sugar. Ruhlman gives you variations, scientific background, and cooking methodologies for each type of dough, batter, sausage, etc. Way fun.<br />
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Why is this so fascinating? It's like knowing what makes a Monet a Monet, what makes Beethoven so different from Bach, which intervals and instruments signal Chinese music and which are hallmarks of Celtic music.<br />
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I'm terrible at knowing how machines work, but I love learning how cooking, art, and music work. I love reading "how to" books but seldom have any real intention of following through. I like the ideas, and I often put them to use in other ways, once they'e been composted and mixed with other ideas. Or not. It doesn't really matter to me. I like learning a little bit about a lot of things. I like reading about the creative things other people do. The ideas and possibilities are enough.Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-29034009640675050162010-04-11T14:55:00.000-05:002010-04-11T14:55:45.677-05:00Top Books of 2010 So Far<a href="http://www.bookpage.com/">BookPage</a> offers us a list of the <a href="http://www.bookpage.com/reviews-10002364-Best-Books-of-2010%E2%80%94so-far">Top 20 Books of 2010 So Far</a> based on the number of hits on their web page. Besides being a rough guide to books that might be worth reading, this gives you a chance to get caught up on your best-seller reading. Kind of like going to movies throughout the year so when Oscar time rolls around, you have seen one or two of the nominees for best picture. Except a lot fewer people will be doing this so don't count on anyone being impressed!<br />
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Note that the list is based on popularity, not critical reviews. But people who are clicking on BookPage are likely to be enthusiastic and discerning readers.<br />
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I just finished Chris Bohjalian's <a href="http://www.bookpage.com/books-10012819-Secrets+of+Eden">Secrets of Eden</a>, (click for extensive review) which is on the list. I liked it, but though I'm usually clueless when reading mysteries, I guessed the ending about halfway through the book. Bohjalian's Double Bind had an unreliable narrator, and the blurb indicated Secrets of Eden would too, so my spidey senses were alert and tingling and I was able to guess "who done it." I prefer to be mystified.<br />
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A much better book, also on the BookPage list, was Heidi Durrow's <a href="http://www.bookpage.com/books-10012916-The+Girl+Who+Fell+From+the+Sky">The Girl Who Fell From The Sky</a>, a complex tale of family sorrow and racial identity, which I recommend wholeheartedly. Rachel, who like the author is half Danish and half African-American, survives a tragic fall in which the rest of her family dies. She moves in with her African-American grandmother, and learns how to fit in this mostly Black environment. The characters she interacts with are insightfully written.<br />
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You can click through to reviews of all the books on the list, and there are several I'm going to take a look at. I'll keep you posted!<br />
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Happy reading!Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-683513337843082762010-01-24T17:00:00.000-06:002010-01-24T17:00:21.087-06:0060's candyI've been looking for pictures of candy from the 60's for a project I'm working on. Remember these?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQvDSB3iI/AAAAAAAAAWM/Tw3vHXV5Etw/s1600-h/Candy+buttons1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQvDSB3iI/AAAAAAAAAWM/Tw3vHXV5Etw/s320/Candy+buttons1.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQ0K03SyI/AAAAAAAAAWU/qTlcJi97qDI/s1600-h/Bubble+Gum+candy+cigarettes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQ0K03SyI/AAAAAAAAAWU/qTlcJi97qDI/s320/Bubble+Gum+candy+cigarettes.jpg" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQ4SAa4gI/AAAAAAAAAWc/69ZQ34khzQg/s1600-h/Retro+Chodo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQ4SAa4gI/AAAAAAAAAWc/69ZQ34khzQg/s320/Retro+Chodo.jpg" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQ9PGNwfI/AAAAAAAAAWk/kOqaP6xx3KU/s1600-h/Penny+Candy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/S1zQ9PGNwfI/AAAAAAAAAWk/kOqaP6xx3KU/s320/Penny+Candy.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-50073775970392306582010-01-19T15:38:00.001-06:002010-01-19T15:39:07.775-06:00Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim, repriseHere are some more mangled headlines from "Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim; and other flubs from the nation's press," edited by the Columbia Journalism Review, compiled by Gloria Cooper. <br />
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"Corection"<br />
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CIA Reportedly Sought to Destroy Domestic Flies<br />
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Crash prompts change in rules; planes must clear mountains first<br />
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Beating Witness Provides Names<br />
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Old Miners Enjoy Benefits of Black Lung<br />
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WAR DIMS HOPES FOR PEACE<br />
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Ban on soliciting dead in Trotwood<br />
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Fish & Game to Hold Annual Election<br />
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Complaints about NBA referees growing ugly<br />
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Columnist gets urologist in trouble with his peers<br />
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Dr. Tackett gives talk on moon<br />
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Stud tires out<br />
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Lawmen From Mexico Barbecue Guests<br />
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Bishop defrocks gay priest<br />
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Teen-age prostitution problem is mounting<br />
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Difference between day and night found on tour of Torrington Schools<br />
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Cabell Democrats Have Two Heads<br />
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Lucky man sees pals die<br />
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Mrs. Gandhi stoned at rally in India<br />
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Nixon to Stand Pat on Watergate Tapes<br />
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Former man dies in California<br />
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Religion: Synod of ishops rejects most of it<br />
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Do it in a microwave oven, save time<br />
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Marital Duties to Replace Borough Affairs for Harold Zipkin<br />
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Well, if you haven't laughed yet, you're not likely to. When I read the book the cumulative effect has me laughing out loud. Hope you got a grin out of one or two of these.Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-45454153285860961212010-01-17T09:01:00.000-06:002010-01-17T09:01:53.799-06:00Squad Helps Dog Bite VictimCindy and I had a conversation this morning that reminded me of one of my favorite books, a book of goofed-up headlines collected by students at the Columbia School of Journalism, "Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim."<br />
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Some other favorites from the book:<br />
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"Milk Drinkers Turn to Powder"<br />
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photo caption "Horse, on far left (not visible in photo) . . ."<br />
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I'll add some more when I get home and have access to the book.<br />
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In the meantime, here's another quote you might like:<br />
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"The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely." T. S. Eliot<br />
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Enjoy your day!Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-48468840896883548642010-01-14T13:19:00.000-06:002010-01-14T13:19:34.273-06:00Piano Puzzler<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Yeterday I heard <a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/puzzler/index.html">Piano Puzzler</a> on MPR for the first time! Great music nerd fun!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Composer Bruce Adolphe selects a tune from folk, popular, or classical music, and uses it as the basis for a short composition "in the style of" a different composer. The one I heard yesterday was Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" in the style of Stravinsky! Man, did that thing move! Adolphe quoted phrases from some of Stravinsky's work as well as other Gershwin quotes, and wove them together into a wonderful piece. The Puzzle is done as a quiz show, with someone from the radio audience trying to identify the tune and the composer. Yesterday's contestant got both!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">One of my favorite Christmas CD's uses the same trick, using carols as the basis for "in the style of" works. The best one is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" in the style of Tchaikovsky. You hear the celestina and think you are listening to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, until gradually it dawns on you that something is a little different. It's great musical humor.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Click on the title or the link below it to visit their archives.</span></span>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-74345370972946863502010-01-12T16:31:00.001-06:002010-01-12T16:34:05.917-06:00More quotations, some sillyI love this. It is very silly:<br />
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<strong>"The deep, deep peace of the double bed after the hurly-burly of the chaise longue."</strong><br />
Mrs. Patrick Campbell<br />
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And now, something completely different:<br />
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" . . . my music teacher offered twittering madrigals and something about how, in Italy, the oranges hang on the tree. He treated me--the humiliation of it--as a soprano.<br />
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"These, by contrast, are the six elements of a Sacred Harp alto: rage, darkness, motherhood, earth, malice, and sex. Once you feel it, you can always do it. You know where to go for it, though it will cost you.<br />
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"In Sacred Harp we are always singing for our fathers, our mothers, our lost. We altos hug the ground, splay out our legs, and cry from the belly; we are suspect even among our own. 'I can't sing next to one of <em>them</em>,' complains a pretty treble, moving down the square."<br />
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Joan Oliver Goldsmith. <em>How Can I Keep From Singing?</em><br />
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Aren't you glad you're an alto? Or don't you wish you were?<br />
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And finally:<br />
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The "six most dramatic mistakes" made by people in the course of their lives, from Cicero, a Roman stateman and orator:<br />
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<ul><li>The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others.</li>
<li>The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.</li>
<li>Insisting that a thing is impossible because we ourselves cannot do it.</li>
<li>Refusing to set aside our own trivial preferences.</li>
<li>Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and studying.</li>
<li>Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do. </li>
</ul>Amazingly durable ideas.<br />
<br />
That's all for now!Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-43995145293684697382010-01-09T12:42:00.000-06:002010-01-09T12:42:42.174-06:00Great quotationsQuotes I've collected:<br />
<br />
<strong>"On recalling the first time he read <em>The Arabian Nights</em>, Dickends found 'all things become uncommon and enchanted to me! All lamps are wonderful; all rings are talismans!'"</strong><br />
from <em>Victorian Fairy Tale Book</em>, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn, Introduction<br />
<br />
Reminds me of Nikos Kazantzakis, (author of <em>Zorba the Greek</em>) describing his childhood <strong>"buzzing bee and honey-filled mind."</strong> Our internal life of imagination and wonder.<br />
<br />
BTW, my sister tells me that MLA standards no longer include underlining of book titles. Imagine that! But I forgot to ask if we are now to use bold or italic. If I've got it wrong, I'm sure the deity has forgiven.<br />
<br />
<strong>"Letters are the great fixative of experience. Time erodes feeling. Time creates indifference. Letters prove to us that we once cared. They are the fossils of feeling."</strong><br />
journalist Janet Malcolm, from <br />
<em>More Than Words: Illustrated Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art</em><br />
<br />
<strong>"no organism can survive very long without externally originating cutaneous stimulation."</strong><br />
Ashley Montague. <em>Touching: The Human Significance of Skin</em>.<br />
<br />
If anyone wonders why you want a hug, you can use this fancy way to say that we all need touch.<br />
<br />
And finally, <br />
<br />
<strong>"If freedom means anything, it is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."</strong><br />
George Orwell<br />
<br />
I have a few more which I will save for another post.Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-43655502824552614812009-12-15T14:53:00.001-06:002009-12-15T14:53:54.130-06:00Rethinking BubblesCheck out this SlideShare Presentation by Helene Blowers: <div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_2646047"><a style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/hblowers/rethinking-bubbles" title="Rethinking Bubbles">Rethinking Bubbles</a><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=innovationouathensfinal-091203204237-phpapp02&stripped_title=rethinking-bubbles" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=innovationouathensfinal-091203204237-phpapp02&stripped_title=rethinking-bubbles" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/hblowers">hblowers</a>.</div></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-90559865847319266092009-11-30T16:17:00.000-06:002009-11-30T16:17:38.336-06:00A Quick Work in Praise of Slowness<strong><a href="http://catalog.hclib.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=125V61888022H.3082&profile=elibrary&uri=full=3100001~!1026347~!13&ri=4&menu=search&source=~!horizon&ipp=20&spp=20#focus">In Praise of Slowness: how a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed</a></strong>. Carl Honore.<br />
<br />
I had to read this book quickly. And now I have to blog quickly because my home internet isn't working, so I'm at the library, with one hour to complete my tasks.<br />
<br />
Need I say more?<br />
<br />
Honore makes a compelling case for the costs of a speed-driven life, and describes the historical development of the "cult of speed." Of less interest to me were the descriptions of "slow" alternative medicine, tantric sex, and slow food. I was familiar with his examples and he didn't present much new material. <br />
<br />
If you're looking for a reason to jump ship, and a rationale, you might enjoy this book.Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-28412535428951576892009-11-18T17:26:00.001-06:002009-11-18T17:33:01.551-06:00"Landslide" by PS22 youth chorusThis is beautiful. I love their expressions when they sing, "Can I handle the seasons of my life? Oh, I don't know." They look so wise and wistful.<br />
<br />
You can check out their blog for many more songs, and interviews.<br />
<a href="http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/"></a><a href="http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/">http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/</a><br />
<br />
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</span></span>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-39390567217356321332009-11-16T19:54:00.000-06:002009-11-16T19:54:40.612-06:00I Regret EverythingOne of my theme songs!<br />
<br />
I can't remember the name of the woman I heard perform it, but the Divine Miss M is a fantastic substitute.<br />
<br />
The video seems a little out of sync (or it could be my computer download speed.) If it's too troublesome, just close your eyes--it's the song that's key.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre;"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q_CdQs3-FfA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q_CdQs3-FfA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-91329305431314853312009-11-12T10:40:00.005-06:002009-11-12T11:29:12.366-06:00Wolcome Yule!<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 230px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Origen3.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Origen3.jpg" alt="Origen, a father of the Christian church, argu..." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="343" width="220" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Origen3.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span></p>This is the time of year I'm most enthusiastic about Christmas. That nagging "Should I fake some sort of costume?" Halloween question has been resolved in my traditional fashion (costume, no; 50's hat with plastic grapes, "Harvest Goddess," yes.)<br /><br />I haven't made a Thanksgiving meal in years because I travel to visit my sister. Thank you, Darcy, thank you, thank you, thank you!<br /><br />After Thanksgiving I must actually prepare for Christmas in whatever minimal fashion I can muster. Jarrett hates holidays (actually he hates change, and disruptions in routine) so ours is Very Minimal! After Thanksgiving I must start reminding myself that Mom had the help of several enthusiastic kids for cookie baking and tree decorating, and that it was usually Dad's growl that got our rears in gear to start cleaning (no one here to whom I can delegate growling.) And since it's just the same old me, I shouldn't expect Christmas miracles beyond the oft-prayed-for sense of humor.<br /><br />But right now is when I love Christmas most, when I browse through women's magazines, and just for a fleeting moment of insanity think of repainting one living room wall to make a better foil for decorating. Or read in "Last Minute Christmas" a plan to make one or two or five incredibly beautiful wreaths of embossed cream velvet leaves, each wreath requiring 100-150 individually crafted (in 6 steps) leaves. I know, but it's <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> pretty!<br /><br />And I temporarily pretend that Jarrett can tolerate Christmas music, and that I'm not diabetic, and that I'm not broke. Because where, I ask you, is the fun in any of that?<br /><br />In American pioneer days Christmas was celebrated with much drunken revelry, firecrackers, and gunfire. Most people lived in isolation, and everyone lived in quiet, and no one had nearly enough sugar. So a holiday, a change of pace, was filled with longed-for community, celebrating, and general whooping-it-up, as well as an extra egg, a pat of butter, and a tablespoon or two of sugar in the bread.<br /><br />As recently as my parents' youth, we were in the midst of a great depression. My mother-in-law remembers watching a little girl across the street sit on her stoop and eat an <span style="font-style: italic;">orange</span>, and you can still hear the longing in her voice when she tells the story.<br /><br />Now we are in the peculiar situation of being surrounded by a merciless torrent of people, information, worldly goods, sugary delights, seasonless grocery shopping, and entertainment. Most of which I kind of like, truth to tell. But what is it we lack?<br /><br />My point here is not to moralize, but to say, let's give ourselves a break from the idea of a bigger, better, faster, shinier Christmas. We've got a lot of big, fast, and shiny already. That's not what we long for.<br /><br />Besides the obvious -- enough money, enough time, a healthy portion of sanity and courage -- what I want is time with family and friends, and quiet moments at home. Christmas exists to serve us, lightening our darkness, not we to serve it. Christmas is the time I put on the silly "Christmas in Sweden" music and dance around the living room. As well as the time I put on the tender "Christmas in Germany" music and sit in the firelight and cry for beauty and memory.<br /><br />Cue the music, begin the dance. And duck and cover --- it's coming!<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/92245a5c-cfd3-4397-8e26-5cad70dc7c37/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=92245a5c-cfd3-4397-8e26-5cad70dc7c37" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-76816639557041391402009-11-11T23:31:00.007-06:002009-11-12T00:05:25.820-06:0050% of U. S. kids will use food stamps<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Clagett_Farm_CSA_Week_11.jpg"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Clagett_Farm_CSA_Week_11.jpg/300px-Clagett_Farm_CSA_Week_11.jpg" alt="Community-supported agriculture" style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="200" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Clagett_Farm_CSA_Week_11.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Wikipedia</span></a></span></p>Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90% of black children will be on food stamps at some point during their childhood.
<br />
<br />Economic woes stemming from the current recession will probably push those numbers higher. The report was based on analysis of data from 1968 to 1997.
<br />
<br />For a family of four to be eligible, their take-home pay can't exceed about $22,000.
<br />
<br />This info was released Monday, November 2 in the November issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
<br />
<br />Pediatrician Paul Wise, in an editorial in the same issue of the journal, wrote,
<br />
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes.
<br />
<br />"I find it terribly sad but not surprising."</span>
<br />
<br /><fieldset class="zemanta-related"><legend class="zemanta-related-title">Related articles by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Zemanta</span></legend><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/the-view-from-their-recession.html">The View From Their Recession</a> (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/half-us-kids-will-get-food-stamps">HALF of U.S. Kids Will Get Food Stamps</a> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">crooksandliars</span>.com)</li></ul></fieldset>
<br />
<br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/b6e13f90-847b-4b7f-a061-6f44c96050d0/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b6e13f90-847b-4b7f-a061-6f44c96050d0" alt="<span class=" error="" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" />Reblog this post [with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Zemanta</span>]"></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-24213634038813387652009-11-09T11:01:00.011-06:002009-11-09T14:12:35.511-06:00Silver and Gold<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Svhgf4Q-2iI/AAAAAAAAAWA/lSTlIZ0Bv4Y/s1600-h/Silver+and+Gold.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Svhgf4Q-2iI/AAAAAAAAAWA/lSTlIZ0Bv4Y/s320/Silver+and+Gold.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402173853826734626" border="0" /></a>
<br />Neither an early post about Christmas decorations, nor a comment on economic conditions: <a href="https://catalog.hclib.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12L779F683S11.26610&profile=elibrary&uri=link=3100018%7E%211899891%7E%213100001%7E%213100002&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=%7E%21horizon&term=Silver+and+gold+%2F&index=UTL"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Silver and Gold</span></a> is <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Hartnell" title="Norman Hartnell" rel="wikipedia">Norman <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Hartnell</span></a>'s book about his career as British fashion designer, most notably as Dressmaker to the Royals.
<br />
<br />The book is illustrated with photographs and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hartnell's</span> sketches, and each description is a little morsel of deliciousness. Here is Her Majesty the Queen in an afternoon dress of duck-egg blue and brown printed taffeta; there, an evening dress of swathed and gathered peach-pink organza. Another sketch shows the young queen in a mimosa tulle dress, and, for a Royal Visit to Norway, June, 1955, an evening dress of embroidered ice-blue satin with plain satin drapery and panel.
<br />
<br />Oh, Swoon!
<br />
<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hartnell</span> began designing costumes for theater in the 1930's. His career as designer to royalty began when he designed the wedding dress for Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester in 1935, and reached its apex with the design of Queen Elizabeth's coronation gown in 1953.
<br />
<br />If you are interested in fashion, fashion design, textiles, embroidery, or theater you'll enjoy this book, with its gossipy backstage glimpses of the Royals, descriptions of wartime shortages and improvisationg
<br />
<br />This book may not appeal to everyone, as suggested by its storage at the Minnesota Library Access Center (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">MLAC</span> -- virtual tour <a href="http://www.minitex.umn.edu/mlac/about/">here</a>), the huge climate-controlled storage area at the U of M.
<br />
<br />To get a glimpse at some of the sketches and illustrations, go to <a href="http://www.wornthrough.com/2009/08/26/norman-hartnell-english-designer/">this post on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Hartnell</span></a> on the blog "<a href="http://www.wornthrough.com/about/">Worn Through--Apparel from an academic perspective</a>," where Heather Vaughan has posted 18 wonderful pages of sketches scanned from the book.
<br />
<br />I like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Hartnell's</span> enthusiastic and slightly loopy prose style:
<br />
<br />". . . [at the Coronation] I took my seat in the Queen's Box whither I had been ushered by Gold Staff officers.
<br />
<br />". . . I was thankful to be early in getting to the Abbey to witness the arrival of all these noble men and women so gorgeously arrayed. Why didn't every one of them, every day, dress like this at breakfast time? What is the merit of choosing the drab when beauty hangs in the wardrobe?
<br />
<br />"I have never seen anything so transcendentally beautiful in my life. One after another the peeresses glide up the bright blue carpet, trailing their robes of crimson velvet, and hasten to their allotted seats like rubies in a hurry. Opposite are row on row of peeresses mounting towards the very roof. They look like a lovely hunk of fruit cake; the damson jam of the velvet, bordered with the clotted dream of ermine and sprinkled with the sugar of diamonds. On my left are the peers, attired in their masculine version of ermine and velvet, their jam puff coronets nestling in their laps."
<br />
<br />You might enjoy this sweet and a little silly (a lovely hunk of fruit cake? jam puff coronets?) trip back in time to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Hartnell's</span> world of color, textiles, fashion design, and royalty.
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<br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/b812acec-dee4-4d2d-9710-2b0681d27680/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b812acec-dee4-4d2d-9710-2b0681d27680" alt="<span class=" error="" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" />Reblog this post [with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Zemanta</span>]"></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-83354273979150332292009-11-01T19:09:00.008-06:002009-11-05T19:01:02.354-06:00Burning books and frying chicken<span style="font-weight: bold;">Hate, Fear, and Southern Hospitality</span><br /><br />Well, as long as it's friendly-like! Here's an interesting juxtaposition of hate, fear, and Southern hospitality!<br /><br />From <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/">The Minnesota Independent</a>, A Center for Independent Media site,<br /><a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/48473/religious-right-watch-happy-halloween-heathens">"Religious Right Watch: Happy Halloween, Heathens."</a><br /><br />"A church in North Carolina . . . is marking Halloween with a <span style="font-weight: bold;">book burning</span>. Called “Burning Perversions of God’s Word,” Amazing Grace Baptist Church will be torching books and CDs it deems evil. “We will also be burning Satan’s music such as country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.,” <a href="http://amazinggracebaptistchurchkjv.com/Download99.html">the church website says</a>. “We will also be burning Satan’s popular books written by heretics. <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">We will be serving fried chicken, and all the sides.”</span></span><br /><br />Here's more<br /><br />". . . one writer for Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network warns parents that witches curse Halloween candy. <p>“[M]ost of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches,” wrote CBN’s Kimberly Daniels. “I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference.”</p> Daniels continued, “Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats. It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist."<br /><br />Aren't all the witches too busy dancing skyclad under the harvest moon to bless all that candy? There's a lot of candy bought and sold for Halloween, and not that many witches! Just sayin'.<br /><br /><fieldset class="zemanta-related"><legend class="zemanta-related-title">Related articles by Zemanta</legend><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://answersforthefaith.com/2009/10/31/halloween-one-church-to-celebrate-by-burning-bibles-and-christian-books/">-Halloween: One Church to 'Celebrate' by Burning Bibles and Christian Books</a> (answersforthefaith.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archives/2009/10/beware_evil_pos.html">Beware Evil Possessed Candy!</a> (yesbutnobutyes.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.alan.com/2009/10/29/kimberly-daniels-warns-that-evil-is-sent-through-halloween-candy/">Kimberly Daniels Warns That Evil Is Sent Through Halloween Candy</a> (alan.com)</li></ul></fieldset> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/ed08ae4e-0df4-4252-9507-0a848745fc93/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ed08ae4e-0df4-4252-9507-0a848745fc93" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-38716496015435009232009-10-27T12:46:00.002-05:002009-10-27T12:57:06.224-05:00Fall photos<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0OWhnsxI/AAAAAAAAAVw/kib_ybz1fyg/s1600-h/DSCN0346.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0OWhnsxI/AAAAAAAAAVw/kib_ybz1fyg/s320/DSCN0346.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397340099596235538" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0OD-du1I/AAAAAAAAAVo/WpLH5qtThg8/s1600-h/DSCN0344.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0OD-du1I/AAAAAAAAAVo/WpLH5qtThg8/s320/DSCN0344.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397340094616943442" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0NoPsyYI/AAAAAAAAAVg/BLyZfeW4iCE/s1600-h/DSCN0368.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0NoPsyYI/AAAAAAAAAVg/BLyZfeW4iCE/s320/DSCN0368.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397340087173040514" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0NaaZcEI/AAAAAAAAAVY/MZAj748AHXk/s1600-h/front+yard+2.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/Suc0NaaZcEI/AAAAAAAAAVY/MZAj748AHXk/s320/front+yard+2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397340083459813442" border="0" /></a><br />Fall on Cleveland StreetAndrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-80208081139468978962009-10-27T12:34:00.002-05:002009-10-27T12:45:43.291-05:00Thirsting after truth"The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."<br /><br />Gustave <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">LeBon</span> (1841-1931) French psychologist and sociologist<br /><br />Thanks go out to l. k. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">hanson</span>, who illustrated this quotation in his "you don't say" in the Star Tribune.Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-21744364080293925732009-10-19T09:00:00.012-05:002009-10-19T10:57:01.670-05:00Life Among The Lutherans<p class="zemanta-img" style="margin: 1em; float: right; display: block; width: 310px;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GarrisonKeillor2007LanesboroMNrain.JPG"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/GarrisonKeillor2007LanesboroMNrain.JPG/300px-GarrisonKeillor2007LanesboroMNrain.JPG" alt="Garrison Keillor during a rainy outdoor broadc..." style="border: medium none ; display: block;" height="385" width="300" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution">Image via <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GarrisonKeillor2007LanesboroMNrain.JPG">Wikipedia</a></span></p>If you don't have time to read the whole post, just know that Garrison Keillor is a comic genius and go ahead and read the book already.<br /><br />If you're still here, welcome back for more book enthusiasm. Have I ever expressed my admiration for Garrison Keillor? I have? Huh.<br /><br />I include some favorite passages below, but there's plenty more: Pastor Ingkvist's salary negotiations, his midadventures at the Sidetrack Tap. Deer Hunting, Ice Fishing, cars, brides, and the National Usher's Competition.<br /><br />I used to identify with the Lake Wobegon kids, young adults recently moved to the city. Once I had kids, and increasingly as the years go by, I'm turning into Arlene Bunsen, Margaret Krebsbach, Judy Ingkvist, and Marilyn Tollerud. Heck, there's a lot of Clarence Bunsen in me, and Carl Krebsbach, Hjalmar Petersen, and the rest of the crew. In fact, every single one of them.That's part of his comic genius. He sees clearly the smallness of our dim, silly, dull, Midwestern lives and hearts, sees us as we are, the dark and the saving grace. His writer's eye takes us apart, shines a light on our flaws, yet in illuminating them, makes them ok, even funny, and we can sigh and laugh and move on. There's acceptance and love for all his characters, the young and old, men and women, pastors and barkeeps and women with badly permed hair. He's not uncritical. The writer is different from the man. There are people in real life Mr. Keillor thinks ill of. But he loves his characters.<br /><br />I take a lot of heart from GK the DJ, and think his writing is deeply spiritual, though he may or not agree. It blesses us. While causing us to chortle, repeatedly, and read proclaim to anyone nearby, "Hey, listen to this."<br /><br />Now we can jump into the good part, a chance for you to read some excerpts.<br /><br />From "It Could Be Worse":<br /><br />"A sensible person seeks to be at peace, to read books, know the neighbors, take walks, enjoy his portion, live to be eighty, and wind up fat and happy, although a little wistful when the first coronary walks up and slugs him in the chest. Nobody is meant to be a star. Charisma is pure fiction, and so is brilliance. It's the dummies who sit on the dais, and it's the smart people who sit in the dark near the exits. That is the Lake Wobegon view of life."<br /><br />From "PK" (pastor's kid)<br /><br />A pastor's child learns that you treat all these people with the same quiet kindness: you offer congratulations to some and condolences to others, but you say it in the same kind voice, not interfering with people's feelings or trying to analyze them, offering the simplest comfort of a hand and a voice, the presence of another human being, here in their extreme moment. And you bring a hotdish.<br /><br />Twentieth Anniversary<br /><br />The clergy fought this out for two years . . . People got all hot about it in that silent glacial way that Norwegians have, and the fight got so unpleasant that people would've gladly avoided heaven if it meant they'd have to talk to the others, and the Lutheran church [of Stavanger, Norway] split into factions, and the Ingqvists were glad to leave. . . the misery of this terrible argument cured him of all homesickness or regret. Norwegians are no fun to fight with because they do it silently: they know they're right, so why should they bother arguing about it? This can go on for years.<br /><br />Ice Fishing<br /><br />Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery was crowded yesterday morning with ambitious people buying pimientos and whole cashews and canned oysters and exotic cheeses, like Gorgonzola and Camembert, and odd spices and exotic mushrooms, and you could tell they'd gotten hold of a magazine article with beautiful color photos of dishes. They were throwing caution to the wind and putting the candied yams and turkey aside in favor of gourmet cuisine, and you knew that some of these cuisine adventures were going to end in heartbreak, in smoke-filled kitchens with frazzled cooks weeping into their aprons and coming unhinged."<br /><br />The Herdsmen<br />(at the National Usher's Competition)<br /><br /> . . . it was a motley crowd. A thousand people and there were a lot of Episcopalians in there, and they always take more time, and a group of blind nuns, the Sisters of Helen Keller, and that slowed things up--old ladies waving white canes and whacking people with them, and some guide dogs growling and barking and there were 140 members of Lutheran Weightwatchers, and the kids from St. Vitus's School for children with ADD, kids who come with a fast-forward button--it was like herding fruit bats and water buffalo.<br /><br />So go and read it, already, and then tell me your favorite parts. I'll even let you read them out loud.<br /><div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/a7e26a25-de4f-4cb9-976c-b08ea86ed070/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a7e26a25-de4f-4cb9-976c-b08ea86ed070" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5366651834158130127.post-51080701294462518482009-10-17T19:49:00.007-05:002009-10-17T21:03:51.487-05:00The Case for God<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/StpqiG2Y1EI/AAAAAAAAAVI/aIMPaYdnELI/s1600-h/CaseforGod.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 250px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_r-Uo9AH3MXY/StpqiG2Y1EI/AAAAAAAAAVI/aIMPaYdnELI/s320/CaseforGod.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393740637916419138" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307269188&view=excerpt">The Case for God</a>, by Karen Armstrong</span></span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Click on the title link to read an excerpt from the introduction to the book. </span><br /><br />All I've read is this excerpt, but Armstrong is no lightweight -- the intro has plenty of chewy ideas. In fact,<br /><br />"'That book was really hard!' readers have told me reproachfully, shaking their heads in faint reproof. 'Of course it was!' I want to reply. 'It was about God.'"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I love her description of music's transcendence:</span><br /><br />"Music has always been inseparable from religious expression, since, like religion at its best, music marks the "limits of reason."<br /><br />"It is the most corporeal of the arts: it is produced by breath, voice, horsehair, shells, guts, and skins and reaches "resonances in our bodies at levels deeper than will or consciousness." But it is also highly cerebral. . .<br /><br />"Yet this intensely rational activity segues into transcendence. Music goes beyond the reach of words: it is not about anything. A late Beethoven quartet does not represent sorrow but elicits it in hearer and player alike, and yet it is emphatically not a sad experience.<br /><br />"Like tragedy, it brings intense pleasure and insight. We seem to experience sadness directly in a way that transcends ego, because this is not my sadness but sorrow itself. In music, therefore, subjective and objective become one.<br /><br />". . . Every day, music confronts us with a mode of knowledge that defies logical analysis and empirical proof. . . Hence all art constantly aspires to the condition of music; so too, at its best, does theology."<br /><br />(I broke up the dense pararaphs to make it easier to read online.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">From the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.randomhouse.com/" title="Random House" rel="homepage">Random House</a> blurb:</span><br /><br />"Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names . . .<br /><p>"[She] examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors?"</p><fieldset class="zemanta-related"><legend class="zemanta-related-title">Related articles by Zemanta</legend><ul class="zemanta-article-ul"><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://r.zemanta.com/?u=http%3A//www10.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/books/review/Letters-t-THECASEFORGO_LETTERS.html%3F_r%3D5%26partner%3Drss%26emc%3Drss&a=8642296&rid=1b9275b4-4363-4f6c-b075-e39a2e3594e0&e=b367950d81788067f56596b23b2c7e57">Letters: 'The Case for God'</a> (nytimes.com)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/out-out-damned-atheists/">Out, Out, Damned Atheists</a> (samharris.org)</li><li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/where-does-evolution-leave-god.html">Where Does Evolution Leave God?</a> (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)</li></ul></fieldset> <div style="margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;" class="zemanta-pixie"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://reblog.zemanta.com/zemified/1b9275b4-4363-4f6c-b075-e39a2e3594e0/" title="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]"><img style="border: medium none ; float: right;" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1b9275b4-4363-4f6c-b075-e39a2e3594e0" alt="Reblog this post [with Zemanta]" /></a><span class="zem-script more-related pretty-attribution"><script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.zemanta.com/readside/loader.js" defer="defer"></script></span></div>Andrea Pearsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537730444239593992noreply@blogger.com0