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This is a Cheyenne woman photographed by Edward S. Curtis. I believe it was taken in 1911. You can find other photos that depict Native Peoples from the Great Plains westward at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html By the way, there are tons of other subject matter photos here. It’s a large chunk of Americana. Hope you enjoy them.

On the home front a couple of things. First the office cleaning is done. I owe a great thanks to the Contrarian who hates cleaning but pitched in like a trooper and probably shaved two days off the project. We are ready to paint!

Secondly, the Contrarian called our neighbor and asked for some assistance to get the car out of the mud hole it had sunk into at our back door. We live in the holler so to speak and from the south, water runs down the hill to us. It continues past us to the creek which also catches the runoff from the hill to the north. He had to pull nearly 50 feet before the car was not sinking any more. We hurried off to Center Point to the “bad store” and got enough of the extras we needed until it finally dries out. The “bad store” means its one of those town local establishments that has not much but the obvious. You won’t find an avocado there for sure. So we are quite happy now, as the miserable rains have returned. The lane itself is pretty good, its just down here now that is muddy. But we left the car back where its quite sandy and drains downward so, we should have no trouble getting out after this couple of days has some time to seep down. The fields look surface dry, but the Contrarian’s half brother has sunk his backhoe into our field while working I believe on the tiles by the north-south creek. What a year it is becoming.

I have an idea, and that often can be a bad thing. It always gets me to thinking. A few nights ago, we were watching Bill Moyers Journal, listening to a young woman who is bureau chief in Iraq for some news group. Some of the Iraqi journalists who work for her also do a blog. I found it, and in looking it over got an idea. Here it is. I’m thinking of trying to collect blogs from various parts of the world, and once a week doing an international look around. I have this Iraq one of course. I found a Palestinian one that looked interesting, but was having trouble getting the feed, so that is still up in the air. I checked around for Iranian ones, and can find none updated since 2007, so the government may be blocking them. What do you think of the idea? After all, the wonder of the internet is the ability to talk to folks from all kinds of places around the globe. Can we benefit from peeking into their lives a bit? I sure think so.

Let’s see what is happening on this soggy dreary day:

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Speaking of that, Deborah at (Mis)Adventures of a Crafty Wifie, is from Singapore and has an interesting take on foxglove. Her life has been much different than most of ours, and I found this post delightful. She’s a wonderful artist in her own right and you might be interested in purchasing some of her work. At least you will enjoy the pictures.

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John Adams was one of our Founding Fathers. American History Blog has the top 10 things you should know about him. Since I have seen some of the HBO series, I knew some of them, but I learned a couple I didn’t know by reading this post. Try it.

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Sandi’s Crochet Blog is always so generous with her work and designs. She posts them all for free for us all. Here is another gem that creates heart shaped work that is suitable for Mother’s Day perhaps?

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Josie at C’est La Vie has an interesting idea–can the “butterfly effect” be applied to human kindness? A smile that grows exponentially, spreading far beyond the original smiler? Read her post and decide.

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Oh boy, Coconut & Lime has a to-die-for dessert today. And it’s about my favorite and is composed of more favorites, oh I’m just bouncy at this one: Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Cocoa Nibs. Danged if I know what a cocoa nib is though? Is it a chip? I left a comment and asked, and I’ll let you know if I remember to go back and find out.

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Lucky us, more recipes are in the offing. Here is one that looked mighty nice for a lovely spring dinner (today would not be the day, given the yucky weather). It features shrimp and is called:
Capellini with Shrimp and Creamy Tomato Sauce. Perfect with some nice fresh bread and salad wouldn’t you say? My thanks to Epicurious.

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Lynda at Essential Estrogen has been busy and brings us another profile of a woman running for Senate seat, District 40 in Iowa. Her name is Sharon Savage. Learn all about her and her vision for Iowa.

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Feeling Stitchy has some very nice pictures of some embroidery work done by another artist. I thought they were most inspiring. I have done some embroidery and I certainly appreciate the skill involved. I’ve just never thought it worthwhile to embroider things like pillowcases and towels, because you either never use them to preserve the work or they wear out and your work goes into the rag heap. But making pictures is a fine way to preserve.

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Free Sample Forager has a number of new offers you might be interested in. (Getting to the mail box again was a delight, I got some Tide and a free poster I signed up for.) I saw toothpaste, and magazines, tea and cereal, among others. Skip on over and see if you find something you would like. Hey, I know these free samples aren’t much, but if you get one wash for free, it is one you didn’t have to pay for right? Over the year, you might save over all more than $100 in products. And it cost you zip, not even a postage stamp!

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Garrison Keillor must have known that today we needed a fix! He has some interesting things to say as always. Read “Freedom is hard work.”

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I must say, the National Review ( or how we can collect that many brain-dead boneheads on one magazine) strikes again. This time its my favorite, women bashing women. This happens a good deal on the right as you may know. Go to a Catholic forum and hear women talking about how wonderful it is to be “equal but different.” Translation: I love being a subservient wife and mother because God wants me to. Anyhoo, today Christina Hoff Sommers tells us how terrible it is that women are fighting for a piece of the prize in what still remain largely male bastions, math, physics and engineering. That women might bring something new to the table is beyond her. She offers a lot of claims but little or no verifiable facts. It’s the usual, the danged women’s movement is destroying family and hearth. Yada yada yada.

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National Geographic is reporting that a tomb thought to be that of Alexander the Great’s father, was actually that of his half-brother. This means that the armor found inside the grave may have belonged to Alexander himself, who pre-deceased his brother. These excavations are occurring in Greece. Read about it at rogueclassicism.

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Have you heard about the NYTimes report that “military analysts” supposedly hired by the various networks to give expert opinion on war stuff were actually plants by the US military? Plants may be too strong a word, but that is in effect what they ended up doing, simply reinforcing the political position of the administration.

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I just love Scandalous Women! I mean that in both ways too. Another wonderful addition to women’s history is offered today in the biographical sketch of Delia Bacon. Her mission in life was to prove that Shakespeare didn’t write those majestically exquisite plays. Her life was tragic. Samuel Morse and Ralph Waldo Emerson also figure in the story. Is that enough to tantalize your brain cells? LOL.

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Looks like science is figuring some things out. Astronomers and others of that ilk, believe that black holes, which are at the center of I believe most galaxies spew out a lot of particles in powerful jets. They had an idea of how that was done. The photos of the process have just been received from VLBA (Very Long Baseline Array) which confirms their theory. Read all the fascinating details at Science Digest.

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Hah! I got the ingredients for this one, so I think next week, I’ll definitely give this a go. It is one of those dishes that seem always right, any season, any day. See if you agree with Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce. This is from that great site, Simply Recipes.

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Susan Posner has another addition to her fine series, Fundamentalist over at the American Prospect. Be sure to read it. This one features Pentecostals, Iowa’s own Senator Grassley, McCain and gay teens.

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The Washington Independent reports the Senate GOP’ers managed to stop another bill. This one gave women a bigger window to sue for wage discrimination. All the Dems wanted was that the statute of limitations reset with each paycheck. Republicans wanted none of that, and McCain is on record saying it “hurt” business. Both Obama and Clinton raced back and voted yeah, McCain did not bother.

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