
This photo was done by the famous Richard Avedon and is called “Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’ Hiver, Paris, 1955. It is located at MoMA. The look to me had that art deco appeal that I so love.
On the home front, work on the living room is going along fine. The ceiling, walls and one cabinet are cleaned and done. All paintings and photo’s are cleaned as well. So a few more days to go. I’m really hoping we can turn the corner on possible frost (and indeed I think we probably have) so I can take the house plants out. We’re going to move some furniture around and that will make things a bit easier.
We are also on the trail of a new vehicle. The Contrarian found a likely one on Craigslist today, and I’ve fired off an e-mail to see if it’s available and when we can take a look. It looks great (a Bronco 4×4) and the price seems reasonable. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
In today’s news:
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Continuing with my current lemon fascination, I’ve found this nice little recipe from Abby Sweets, Vanilla-Lemon Pudding Cakes. Now that seems to satisfy just about all my passions, vanilla, lemon and gooey cake. Nothing could be finer than a day in Carolina….oops…wrong venue.
Sandi’s Crochet Blog has a smart little headband you might want to take a look at. Little girls seem always to love these tiny embellishments and adults can use them too.
One of the things this crazy administration suffers from is a complete and utter arrogant disregard for the past. Woodrow Wilson may have a thing or two to teach us about foreign policy. Ted Widmer from MIT Center for International Studies has some ideas. Read his interesting thoughts.
Cookies are one of those things that you can usually make quickly and they offer a nice snack, or for me, breakfast! Try out these Maple Shortbread Cookies and see if they fill the bill. We thank Baking Delights for this one.
Begging for Bargains sends us to CraftFreebies where we are promised, yep, you guessed it, lots of craft free things. It seems most are sewing projects, so get out that machine and dig in. It is a site filled with tons of patterns! But if you back off the URL to the main address, it broadens to a gargantuan number of free craft ideas. So enjoy to your hearts content. Free Sample Forager has a number of new offers, including some baseball “club packs” for kids, Dunkin Donuts free coffee samples, A Coldplay download, and others. Take a look.
Remember the investigation into the Bush eavesdropping programs? Remember the “lost” e-mails? Blue Girl, Red Statehas much more on the story. Will this stonewalling by the Bushites continue to work? Who is looking at prison these days? The Pale Rider brings you the latest.
Civil War Women has another profile, this time of Margaret Elizabeth Breckinridge. This is the story of a woman determined to serve as a hospital nurse. Imagine the courage this took back then. She worked the Mississippi hospital boats that brought wounded from the posts. Read all about her dedication to helping the war effort no matter the physical cost to herself.
I love Japanese gardens. I would not want my entire garden that way, but I’d love a little corner that was this place of beauty, serenity and order. Sally’s Gardening Tips has some ideas if you would like to try creating a little magic yourself.
Cupcakes! Oh yeah. And to not belabor the point, a little lemon can be found in these Lemon-Raspberry Cupcakes. I think they sound soooo very delicious. Thanks to Epicurious for this one.
If you sew, or know one, (a sewer I mean) or do anything that requires a pin cushion, you might want to take a look at the toadstool that Feeling Stitchy has for you. The pattern is there, and it makes a cute little pin cushion. Of course you can use the pattern for other things as well. Take a look.
Garrison Keillor has a new little essay for us all. This one is on flying. Personally, the Contrarian and I have given up on this method of travel. My last trip was to Iowa in 1999, wherein I had to bus from Chicago in the end. His last trip was a flight to Connecticut, wherein he stopped at Detroit, and was late as heck due to snow. We decided we had spent all our free lives and it was time to stop! Read “Remember when it was fun to fly.”
Undoubtedly there is debate about President Jimmy Carter’s recent trip to the Middle East and his meeting with Hamas. I am one of those who favored the trip, regardless of whether anything worthwhile appears to have been accomplished. I don’t favor isolating enemies, and find talking to anyone much more rational and in the end much more productive. Read Scott Kaufman’s assessment at the History News Network and see what you think.

It seems we have always had a sweet tooth. See? Now I have no reason to feel the least bit guilty. It’s genetic! It seems that early hominids all were fruit eaters, and they liked the soft squishy types the best. Read more at Live Science.
Another of those famous limericks from Mad Kane. I never cease to chuckle at her wit, and I am envious of her talent. Take a look at her latest jab!
It seems that the Catholic Church is not the only one faced with a minority of right wing wingnuts. The Methodists are getting ready to hold their every four year meeting in Texas and it seems there are two camps and a threat by one to separate from the other. Always good to add another denomination to the mix I’m sure. That makes probably somewhere in the vicinity of 34,103 now, give or take a dozen or so. Since the article by Mark Hemingway uses such rhetoric as “Bible-oriented traditionalists find themselves opposing a leadership that is dragging the church in a direction defined by liberal political activism,” I guess you can assume what side he is on. It’s sad nonetheless.
I have some thoughts on Jeremiah Wright, but I think I’ll save them for the Editorial on Sunday. Still, the darn story is not going away, and at this point, one has to look to Rev. Wright as the reason why. I’m not quite sure I understand why he is doing what he is doing, but I do know that it is harming Obama’s campaign in ways that may prove fatal. Read Maureen Dowd’s take on the whole mess. A more thorough discussion about Wright and what this means can be had at On Faith, over at the Washington Post. The panel includes essays by Deepak Chopra, Anthony M Stevens-Arroyo, Cal Thomas and others.
Kevin Drum (Political Animal) brings us news on the GI Bill, currently before the Senate. Seems Senator Webb did not like Senator McCain’s remarks and has replied with some shall we say vituperative remarks himself. I’ve taken you directly to the source, Politico.com
Politics Plus has another fine article on the just down right sickening tactics being used by the military to lessen the load of health care to returning vets. This stuff is so outrageous that it begs more attention. Democrats over and over attempt to do something and are met by a stonewalling, vetoing idiot named George. Read all the disgusting details and follow the links to read more from several publications.
Having seen a layout of Rome, one is always amazed at the sheer size of the city created over hundreds of years. That the Romans were masters of existing technology is not disputed. Students attempting to replicate a number of the more spectacular buildings are learning a lot. You might, as well if you take a look.
You see, John McCain seems to continue to get a pass from the media regarding his little problem with religious zealots. Rev. Hagee’s has said, and I quote: “As a nation, America is under the curse of God, even now.” Yet McCain not only doesn’t repudiate him, he still claims he welcomes his endorsement. Read the sordid little story at Talk 2 Action, and ask yourself, what is going on with this? Is it only because McCain doesn’t attend Hagee’s church that he can get away with it? Doesn’t seem a good enough reason to me.
Speaking of both Hagee and Wright, Susan Posner’s Fundamentalist addresses both in her weekly article at The American Prospect. Don’t miss her fine analysis of what’s happening this week in the crazy world of fundamentalism.
Boy, this sounded really good to me and I realized it was sure time to make something Chinese for dinner. I’ll plan that for next week some time. Anyhow, a nice recipe for fried rice comes from the Baking Beauties. Hope you like it!
I’m never sure quite how I feel about athletes in college quitting before graduation to join the professional world of sport.I used to not be sure, that is until the salaries became so humongous that you pretty much need to be brain dead to turn down the money for a diploma and maybe that money later on. But it did not persuade one young lad from South Carolina, who is foregoing the NBA draft to stay in school for his senior year. It only takes one class and one professor it seems to change the tide of greed. Tongue in cheek?
Veggie Gardening Tips has a nice little gardening log that you might want to examine. It can give you a hint as to whether you are ahead or behind, and kind of helps organize things a bit. The Contrarian walked the garden today and thought it still too wet to till. I tend to agree. On our trip to Cedar Rapids yesterday, we saw very few fields that had been spring plowed. It’s taking a long time to seep this water away, and we still have some standing puddles.
You know it’s bad enough to go to a forum and find wingnut Catholics who ponder if poor people deserve health care, housing, food, and education. (Mostly they do not, because poor people are for the most part lazy, and everyone knows we can handle the small number of really deserving with charity alone.) But of course, it’s actually much worse than that. These whack heads also spend lots of time worrying about whether people receiving communion should be allowed to, based on their politics. If you want to see real crazy fundamentalist rhetoric on a par with anything you are likely to read about radical Islam, take a gander at Vox Nova today. The comments as always is where the fun begins. The post is rational for the most part.
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“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.” Christopher Morley
“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” Arthur C. Clarke
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.” John Maynard Keyes
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Bumper stickers:
“Watch out for the idiot behind me!”
Keep honking! I’m reloading!
To all you virgins: Thanks for nothing!
Tennis players have fuzzy balls.
The fastest way to a fisherman’s heart is through his fly.
Stupidity is not a crime so you are free to go.
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And on ABC News tonight, they said gas prices are now flirting with $4 a gallon. Flirting? Huh? Aren’t we a little beyond flirting? Aren’t we getting screwed at this point? Jay Leno
David Blaine today broke the world record for holding his breath, on “Oprah” — 17 minutes, four seconds. Blaine has now frozen himself, he’s starved himself, he’s gone without sleep for weeks, and deprived himself of oxygen. Today, Dick Cheney said, “See, it’s not torture. It’s magic.” Jimmy Kimmel
The Kentucky Derby is Saturday. It’s an annual ritual that is truly symbolic of American culture. The rich owner watching earns a million dollars. The participant doing all the work gets fed hay.
The Weather Channel is for sale. Ratings for the network have slipped as viewers who are interested in world around them are turning to its chief rival: looking out a window.
Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, has died at 102. He had no idea his creation would spawn a host of negative after-effects. Bad trips, freak-outs, and incredibly tacky clothing. – Alan Ray, Stockton, Calif.
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