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The Minstrel Cycle: Texting with my Sisters
I was looking for some goofy socks for my nephew, who plays the trombone. I found these mislabeled ones on Amazon and had to take a screenshot to share with my sisters. I think the rest is self explanatory. I didn’t end up buying them. Maybe I would have bought myself a pair if they had been as described. Then I saw this book, but by then it was after Christmas. Of course, it looks like one of a kind; not a “buy with one click” kind of deal. Maybe I’ll send my nephew the photo and ask him if he wants it for his birthday.
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Don’t Forget the Pagans
Over the weekend, I wished the bagger at our grocery store “Happy Holidays!” She responded with saccharine sweetness, “Happy Halloween!” As we pushed our laden cart away from her and toward the parking lot, I said to Matt, “I don’t understand what just happened, but I think I’m all for it.” “I think,” he said, “she was passive/aggressively telling you to take your war on Christmas and shove it up your ass.” “Because I said ‘Happy Holidays’?” I asked. “Yes.” “Maybe,” I said, secretly thinking Matt was being a paranoid liberal and a bit of a humbug. “But I’m still digging it.” In my mind, ‘the holidays’ start with Mabon…
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The Elephant’s New Clothes
I think I have lost my ‘edge.’ For the last few months, I’ve been dealing with an issue at work. I’m tempted to lay out all the gritty details, but let me see if I can reduce it to nutshell size. I volunteered to facilitate a project called “Elephants in the Room.” My department’s upper management (directors and above) wanted feedback from the lower three quadrants of the department (managers and below) to get some visibility on and hopefully address some of our most pressing issues. I didn’t get a lot of input from my management, but I was told multiple times that there were “no wrong answers.” So, I…
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Witches Brew: Repost
I just learned a historical fact that blew my mind. Matt is reading a book on the dark ages right now, and he told me that there is a paragraph describing that from ancient times, beer was made almost exclusively by women. But in the 1500s, men decided that they wanted to take over beer making as careers and set about putting the brewers known as “alewives” out of business. So they called them witches and drove them out beer making. Here is a video that shows how the details we associate with witches, such as brooms and cats, directly came from the legacy of the alewives. So interesting! Makes…
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Sweetums
This is, I realize, a PEAK Gen X nerd out, but… I follow Muppet History on Facebook. I just saw this post about Sweetums today. Sweetums was always one of my favorites and the reason I always preferred The Muppet Show to Sesame Street. (Sweetums but also the old guys (Statler and Waldorf), and the guy that shot fish out of cannons. And Pigs in Space. Actually nevermind, I loved all of it.) Anyway, the post reminded me of a little vignette of a memory. The first time I saw The Muppet Movie as a child I was quite distressed when Sweetums got left behind. I was so upset about…
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Great Expectations
I was at an airport, and I overheard a video chat a young woman (mid- to late-twenties, I’m guessing) was having with a friend. She was loud and dramatic, which is why I heard as much of the conversation as I did. “I can’t even get into it right now. No one understands what kind of emotional pain I am in!” There is a Tracey Ullman sketch where she is Angela Merkel and she is trying so hard not to roll her eyes that the rest of her body flips off the couch she is perched upon. I wasn’t about to flip off an airport chair, but I was in…
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The Birdbath: A Work in Progress
I’m slowly working my way through the challenges presented in the British reality TV series, “The Great Pottery Throwdown.” My friend and pottery studiomate, Stef, are calling it our Wee Pottery Throwdown. The first challenge was five nesting bowls. That one took me several tries. I had to throw about ten bowls to get five that nested nicely. The second challenge is a birdbath, and I had a false start with that one, also. I threw a large platter starting with five pounds of clay. I liked the shape I ended up with but I decided it wasn’t wide enough, and the sides were flatter than I intended. I was…
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A Moment of Introversion
I have always been introverted. In the past, I was able to build my extroverted muscles so that I could flex into that mode if it was required. After working from home for the better part of a decade compounded by the effects of a pandemic, those muscles have apparently atrophied. I took a personality test for work this week and my results showed that if I were any more introverted, I would be a mollusk. I spent the work week at the corporate office, interacting with other humans. The point of the personality test was to give us some insights into our strengths and preferred communication styles. I’ve done…
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The Other Boats
Matt and I went to the movies last weekend. I think that is the fourth time I have seen a movie in a theater since the beginning of the pandemic. I can’t blame Covid for that, entirely. I’ve reached that age where I can’t go that long without my bladder bursting, and I need a “pause” button so I don’t get confused. There was a time, however, when going to the movies was my favorite thing on the earth, and I got a tad nostalgic about it. I bought popcorn and a soda and I brought a blanket (because even though it is August, the frosty air conditioning makes me…
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Empty Boats
Katie, the teacher of my Wednesday yoga class, likes to give us something to think about when we are all lying in savasana, the final resting pose at the end of the practice. I usually spend this time recovering from her core workouts, which I find challenging – bordering on impossible – as they require both coordination and superhuman strength, so I enjoy her inspirational offerings which take my mind off the burning. This week, she told a story about a monk that went out on a boat to meditate. I missed a bit of the beginning (because: heaving), but here is the gist: He floated out to the middle…