heroes all.
–
“survival is nothing more than recovery.”
-dianne feinstein
—
credits: martin bernetti, afp, getty images mental floss
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May21
May20
gravity.
while everyone’s eyes were focused
on the royal love story across the pond
i happened upon this one
much closer to home.
—
“you can’t blame gravity for falling in love.”
-albert einstein
May19
where hobbies, hijinks, and capers go bad = my childhood #4
one day
when i was little
sitting in my garage
with my sisters and friend
just watching the little spiders in the corner
as we hung out, talking and wondering
how we could make some money
we came up with a brilliant plan
and decided that it would be a great idea
to start a ‘spider farm’
where we would breed spiders in my garage
and sell them to all of the people in our neighborhood
overhead would be low
we just had to find two spiders
get them to meet each other
and have babies
we never really considered the logistics
or that we knew nothing about spiders
or that we weren’t really spider fans
or how we would get them to ‘fall in love’
or that there might not be any customers
or that our business would close before it opened
when my mom closed the garage door and made us play outside
and that is the main reason why i am not a spider farmer today
and a teacher instead.
—
“don’t worry, spiders, i keep house casually.”
-robert hass, field guide
—
image credit: david kirk, ‘miss spider’s sunnypatch kids’
May18
early.
Japanese train departs
25 seconds early – again!
A Japanese rail company has apologised after a train left a station 25 seconds early, the second such case in months.The operator said the “great inconvenience we placed upon our customers was truly inexcusable”.
If the details are anything to go by, customers are faced with slipping standards: a train last November left 20 seconds early while this time it was a full 25 seconds premature.
Japanese trains have a reputation for extreme punctuality, and it turned out that there were indeed still people hoping to get onboard. Left on the platform, they complained to the rail operator and an official apology was issued shortly afterwards.
In the case last November, management on the Tsukuba Express line between Tokyo and the city of Tsukuba said they “sincerely apologise for the inconvenience” caused. Back then the mishap was also caused by the conductor mixing up departure times – though no passenger was left behind.
—
“it’s too early to go, but it’s never too late to leave.”
-anthony t. hincks
—
credits: bbc news/asia, japan today
May17
pack rat.
happy national pack rat day – may 17th
There’s a fine line between holding on to nostalgia, and being a serious contendor for an episode of Hoarders. But just for a day, you are permitted to openly cherish the growing stack of Signals catalogs piling up in your basement sans any judgment of concerned family and friends. Who knows? Maybe your Beanie Babies will become collectibles again, and the joke will be on us.
—
and 2 very different philosophies from 2 very creative geniuses on this subject:
“i want to lead the victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter.”
-freddie mercury
—
“out of clutter, find simplicity.”
-albert einstein
team freddie or team albert?
—
credits: stanford university (image), mental floss
May16
everything.
kinders find tiny ants, roly-poly’s, and baby spiders
when playing on the sidewalk
and decide to create a playground for them
using all of their pretty chalks.
—
“everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
-confucius
May15
squirreled away.
squirrels stash 50 pounds of pine cones under car hood in northern michigan
A pair of Michigan residents couldn’t believe their eyes when they opened the hood of a car to reveal more than 50 pounds of pine cones that had been stored by an unknown culprit, presumably one with four legs and a bushy tail.
Gaylord resident Kellen Moore arrived at the Iron Pig Smokehouse for work with a shocked look on his face. Noticing his odd expression, Gabe Awrey, a friend and manager at the restaurant, asked what was up.
“Being the good friends that we are, he asked me if I had received some snapchat videos that he had just sent me,” Awrey said. “They didn’t come through, so he pulled up the video on his phone. I was instantly in disbelief, saying something along the lines of ‘When was this? A few weeks ago?'”
Moore had previously found the pine cones when he checked under the hood because his air conditioning was making an odd noise when he turned it on. The phone video wasn’t enough for Awrey, though. He had to see it in person.
Together, the friends walked to the parking lot where Moore’s recently-purchased Dodge Journey was parked, opened the hood and discovered the engine bay packed with pine cones. It took them about 45 minutes to clear out the debris.
“Heat from the engine also made them expand, so some were harder than others,” Awrey said. “He bought this car used about a month and a half ago and there were none then.” They both agree that squirrels are responsible for the stockpile.
“This stuff happens a lot up here,” Awrey said. “It happens to everyone eventually. But not on this scale. At the worst you find some acorns in your air filter or what not. Everyone who has seen this can’t believe it. It’s the perfect set up for a squirrel though. Nice and insulated, lots of food with the pine cones. Pretty practical until your nest drives away.”
—
“the squirrel in my yard really knows his way around the neighborhood.”
-bob saget
—
credits: mlive.com, gabe awrey
