The link to this was posted at Mythsoc, and watching it brought a big smile to my face:

Watch Appraisal: 1937 Signed, First Edition on PBS. See more from Antiques Roadshow.

For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums...

The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry* urging punks to "go ahead, make my day."Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch.

These are among the 75 items on this year's Beloit College Mindset List...

The list is meant to remind teachers that cultural references familiar to them might draw blank stares from college freshmen born mostly in 1992.

Of course, it can also have the unintended consequence of making people feel old...

*Yup, I'm old alright. Never mind "Dirty Harry"; I can remember when Clint Eastwood was Rowdy Yates on Rawhide.

Addendum: On a related note Becoming a Squinter Nation , or "How Technology Tries Our Eyesight."

Your Inner European is French!

Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so.

As always, there were a number of answers that I might have chosen differently - for one, I would go for the wine and opera, followed by lots of coffee and discussion (or arguing, depending on your POV) *VBG*

Same applies to my ideal vacation: I'd take in lots of historical sites, along with culture and shopping. Alas, one is permitted only one choice - and how can any [honest] woman deny the desire to shop? ;)

*picked up from fileg:

You are The Lovers

Motive, power, and action, arising from Inspiration and Impulse.

The Lovers represents intuition and inspiration. Very often a choice needs to be made.

Originally, this card was called just LOVE. And that's actually more apt than "Lovers." Love follows in this sequence of growth and maturity. And, coming after the Emperor, who is about control, it is a radical change in perspective. LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. This card indicates that the you have or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that you will fall in love with. You will know instinctively that you must have this, even if it means diverging from your chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it you will never be complete.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

~Desiderius Erasmus

I would add one thing; When I get a little money I buy books and music... :)

A truth I discovered while moving:

Amazing! If you hang something in the closet for awhile, it shrinks two sizes.
~Barbara Johnson

And this doesn't apply to just my clothes. The boys found even more old clothes that neither one of them could wear anymore - okay, so they're growing up, not out like their mom. :p

On a different note, the new houseplants aren't the only ones enjoying the sunshine at our new condo:



Ginger gravitates to that spot as soon as the afternoon sun hits it, and after vigorously kneading the carpet and circling a few times, he settles down for a bit of sunbathing. :)

There's still some unpacking to be done, but the last box should be out of here before too much longer - if I can get another bookcase/DVD shelf, or two.... :p

( Read more... )

We purchased a few houseplants last weekend, now that we have actual sunshine instead of living in what might as well have been a cave - nothing remotely like Aglarond. Even Moria might have been an improvement. :p But now the sunshine reaches most parts of the condo at one time of day or another, so we have added a peperomia, a Devil's Ivy (aka Pothos), a Burros's-Tail, and what one of the tags labeled a clean air machine, a Spider Plant - a relatively small one, yet with five or six *babies* ready for potting.

Now for the balcony...I have my eye on a beautiful hibiscus (Rose of Sharon) topiary to be the foundation for a fragrant container garden similar to this. Maybe this coming weekend.... :)

- only to be greeted with the news that the Mississippi River Bridge on Highway 35W in downtown Minneapolis had collapsed. A Minneapolis blogger witnessed the collapse from the roof of his apartment.

nilmandra007 has more, and telperion1 also notes the horrific event. Like they, my prayers are with all involved, most especially the families of those killed and injured, the many brave, selfless people who have and are still involved in rescue operations, and the medical personnel who are caring for the injured. Praying also that the bad weather holds off long enough so the rescue workers can locate everyone - safely, please God.

( Re: more mundane matters... )