Culture
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Meme Monday – Back to Lockdown
I posted this meme on Facebook last year after reading Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk, which is a great novel that I really enjoyed, about an 85 year old woman meandering her way to a party in New York on New Year’s Eve, 1984. Ms. Boxfish was a very talented ad woman for Macy’s in the 1930s, and the character is based on the real-life ad woman, Margaret Fishback. Facebook likes to remind you of things you posted on this day in history, so this popped up, and I decided it’s a meme, and it sums up the whole feel of Shelter in Place (SIP) so perfectly. Speaking of Shelter…
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Meme Monday – Art Edition
Art ala 2020. I miss museums. A few years ago, I went to see an exhibit at a local museum with my dear friend Marilee. I paid for the admission to the exhibit, which was Degas, Impressionism, and the Millinery trade, and while we were in the gift shop at the end of the exhibit, she found out that the ticket price could be applied to an annual membership, and she paid the difference as a gift to me. I discovered that with that membership, I went more often. My step-mom, Julie, always gives me money for my birthday, and for the last couple of years, I have been considering…
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Thursday Thirteen, Los Angeles version
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia – there was a TINY bit of snow on the tip of the mountains, nothing like this. I don’t think I realized before that there are mountains RIGHT THERE, but I’ve not really paid much attention to LA in the past.) My BFF Rosemary lives in Pennsylvania. She and I met in High School in 1982, and after HS she moved around a bit for a few years, ending up in PA a few months before we moved back to California. She has two boys in college, one is graduating from Clemson in May, the other is a Freshman at Lewis and Clark in Portland, OR.…
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My Trip to Washington D.C., Day 3
Saturday my BFF Rosemary, who lives in Pennsylvania, down near the Delaware border, drove down to D.C. to spend the day with us. We started out at the National Portrait Gallery, and ended up getting separated from the rest of my family there. It was OK with everyone that we did so…Rosemary and I wanted to go slowly and read the blurbs about all of the Presidents, and my sister wanted to take her kids to the Air and Space Museum, which I didn’t care about. So they ended up seeing more pictures than we did, but we went more slowly at our own pace. It was interesting to us…
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My Trip to Washington D.C., Day 2
As if it weren’t emotional enough to honor my dad at the Grant Writers’ Association conference, we also honored my step-mom’s first husband, Bruce, who died early in the Vietnam War. She was married while in college, and he left soon after their wedding to go to Vietnam, so they did not have a lot of time together. They did spend some time in Hawaii once when he was on leave. His death broke her heart and changed her life. She left college and travelled in Europe for awhile, and when she came home, discovered she could not bear to live in California anymore, there were too many memories. So…
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My Trip to Washington D.C., Day 1, Part 2
After spending the morning at the Grant Writers’ Association Conference, we walked over to the National Mall and went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was amazing and overwhelming and so emotional. We only had the fortitude to visit the History section, and at that point were worn out and ready to head home for the day, which is too bad in a way because I think the Culture section would have been well worth seeing as well. The museum is part of the Smithsonian, which means that it is free, and I think a person could spend a month or two in D.C. and…
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Harriet
Harriet Tubman has been my hero for as long as I can remember. When Maya was little and they were talking about heroes at school, I told her about Harriet, and several years later she told me that at the time, she had pictured her with a cape, flying down like Superman, rescuing slaves from the south and spiriting them north to safety and freedom. I love that idea, but of course, if she had been able to fly, she would not be proven to be as brave as she was in real life. Putting herself into harm’s way, again and again, So, a few months ago when we first…
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Save the Titans
Near the California/Oregon border, near Crescent City, is Redwood National Park. Within this beautiful park (which I have not personally visited), there is a small grove of giant redwoods, discovered in the 1990s, nicknamed the “Grove of Titans”. The biggest two are the fourth and fifth largest known coastal redwoods in the world, and they are surely magnificent. There was a story in today’s paper about the grove, talking about how secret it used to be, but how popular it now is, which is dangerous for the very trees that people are trekking in to see. Redwood trees have very shallow roots, and are sensitive to people walking on the…
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My Reading List
I have not been in the mood to read lately. By lately, I mean, since my Dad died. I just veg out in front of the TV. But I miss reading. I miss getting sucked into a story, and now I have a couple of reasons to crack a book. First, Ted’s aunt and I are both fans of Dick Francis mysteries. He died several years ago, and his son has taken over the franchise. Auntie is much better than I am about remembering to watch for a new release. Well, there is a new release, which she reserved at the library. She read it and then gave it to…
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Presidential Cereal
I had a dream last night (or was it a vision?) of a cereal box with Trump’s picture on it. I know, what a horrid idea. I told Ted, and he went and found this picture, likely in order to torture me. I mentioned it on Facebook, (which is where Ted put the picture), and my FB and prior bloggy friend V-Grrrl said that her nephew (founder of Air B&B) had presidential cereals back in 2008. So I did a search for Presidential Cereals, and found these. The Obama Os and Cap’n McCain’s are VGrrrl’s nephew’s. Good thing these aren’t around all the time. I for one do not want…
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Such Sad News
[youtube]http://youtu.be/NQj7Ek2kqxs[/youtube] I woke up to such sad news today, that David Bowie had died from cancer. Generally, I don’t feel anything when celebrities die. Especially since my mom died, I know how much the death of a real-life person you know and love hurts, and what an absolute hole it leaves in your heart. How can the death of a stranger truly matter. And maybe it doesn’t. But still, this morning’s news hurt. David Bowie was my first real celebrity crush. I remember when I was about 20, dreaming that he came to the hotel where I worked, and oh, by the way, he was my husband in this dream.…
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A Day in the City
Yesterday found the three of us going into the City. For Ted, it was a work day, so we dropped him off a few blocks from his office, and then we went to have some fun. We met up with our friends, Marilee and Paul. Marilee is my dear friend, whom I met in Latin class while studying at San Francisco State back in the early 90s. Paul is her wonderful husband, who she met on an archilogical dig in Greece. We went to b. Patisserie on California Street, and enjoyed kouign-amann, the lovely pastry that you see above. I had never heard of kouign-amann, but it is similar to…
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Happy Thanksgiving!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0IyAAOmwx4[/youtube]
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Doing Your Part
(Jesus the Homeless, by Timothy Schmalz) Last Saturday morning found Maya and me (and her friend) in San Francisco, handing out meals to homeless people. We had done this once before, when she was in 7th or 8th grade. In that instance, it was for a class, Teens Around the World, in which they learned about kids in other cultures. A group of 10 or 15 kids, the teacher, and several parents went into the city and handed out bag lunches, which the student had assembled the day before in class. It was kind of an amazing experience, and I think it helped Maya to overcome her fear of homeless…
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Jury Duty
Wednesday I was summoned to another part of my county to perform my civic duty and report for the dreaded Jury Duty. Jury Duty can be horribly boring, sitting in the Jury room for hours on end, and then perhaps dismissed. Bring a book. I once brought a notepad and wrote my friend a 6 page letter before being dismissed, then went to lunch and then some light shopping. It can be a nice diversion from your regular routine, provided that your company pays you for the time. I wonder if the reason so many people hate it is because they are losing pay or income by being there. I…