All Purls. No Swine.
Crimenutely. A post from a five-years-ago New Year's that--with a 2023 update--I think might be worth another look: Let’s be clear: I could write at length about renovation in one of its generally accepted senses. I could write about the house we’ve been building and renovating for over three decades, and which still has a… Continue reading Clearing My Spindle, Cleaning My Bowl–2023 Edition
Got one of those annoying cheery little pop-ups on my phone this morning, announcing that December 22 is National Date Nut Bread Day. I love date nut bread. I was first introduced to it by a co-worker I'll call John (not his real name), in 1987 or so. The large hospital system I was working… Continue reading National Date Nut Bread Day, and the Complications of Memory
Thursday, December 21 is the first day of astronomical winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Astronomy notwithstanding, the day of the Winter Solstice is historically recognized in the UK as "Midwinter's Day," just as the Summer Solstice occurs at the time of "Midsummer," never mind that the United States thinks that Summer's just begun. This… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale, Bleak Midwinter 2023!
I woke up in the dark today at 0630 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit--minus 8.8 Celsius--temperatures, and a rather chilly bedroom. Long story, never mind. A few short hours later, the air temperature outside was only 35F (slightly above freezing). But--because of the cloudless sky and bright sunshine--the temperature in my little sunroom was 80F (26.6C). … Continue reading December 20, 2023
Crimenutely. I’m not much of a fan of this woman, if for no other reason than of that bloody Titanic song that (just like the movie), went “on and on,” seemingly without end and forever. But I cannot have other than heart for her. Just a year ago, she announced that she'd been diagnosed with an… Continue reading Reset: Celine Dion
Lifted from a post two years ago this very day, and updated for the occasion: See, this is why I like doing random research for Quote of the Day posts. I can go out and do a bit of investigating (my family doesn’t call me the “data ferret” for nothing), and, willy-nilly, I nearly always… Continue reading “God bless us, every one, December 19, 2023!” (And a musical interlude)
It's self-pity. We are (at least recently) consumed by it. They are not. I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself--D.H. Lawrence, Self-Pity First, let's get something out of the way: I'm not a great fan of… Continue reading The Difference Between Humans and Animals, According to DH Lawrence
Revisiting a post from exactly three years ago here. (In the midst of Covid misery.) I was reminded of it by a couple of recent posts on Ricochet. Please subscribe if you have not already. You won't regret it. While I often re-post stuff I've written on Ricochet on this site, as a backup, if… Continue reading Responsible Men, and the Women Who Love Them: A Reminder for Us All
You probably all know either the meme or the original story: The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked… Continue reading Twitter Idiots: On Boiling the Frog
One hundred six years ago today, on December 4, 1917, the Scottish psychiatrist W.H. Rivers first delivered his report titled The Repression of War Experience. It wasn't published until several months later, by which time the title had been "borrowed" by WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon, in his poem of the same name: Repression of War… Continue reading “These are the men whose minds the dead have ravished”