turned in my ballot
watched the first debate
went to sleep hopeful
’tis the season of change
i feel it in the air.
—
“you are not just for the right or left, but for what is right over the wrong.”
– suzy kassem, the writings of suzy kassem
Sep30
Monthly Archives: September 2020
Sep29
humans without borders.
yes, this.
—
“humans without borders, that’s what the world needs –
beings of conscience and courage, with no rigidity of religion, gender, nationality, or any other.”
– abhijit naskar, ain’t enough to look human
Sep28
a tribute to your individuality – neighborhood style.
i am endlessly fascinated by the postings i find on my neighborhood nextdoor site:
the one about the wild turkeys holding a woman at bay in her driveway
then her warning to others, after she escaped unscathed to the car,
as she last saw them headed down the road looking for other victims like a street gang
the one complaining about kids running through his yard instead of staying on the path
the one who reported the tiny pet turtle who ‘ran’ away from her yard
and on and on.
then there was my favorite:
it was a long chat chain that began when someone relocated here from the uk and was looking for a store that sold weet bix. the response/comment section continued on for months, with neighbors offering suggestions of where to find different flavors and sizes of it, who had the best prices, adding in images of artwork made with weet bix, weet bix jokes, weet bix gifs, weet bix logo clothing, balanced towers of weet bix, opinions about weet bix, bowls of weet bix, people sharing their u.k. memories……it was absolutely brilliant, and even included a site administrator who couldn’t take it anymore, trying to wind it up at one point, summarizing it by listing the previously suggested stores, only to have it start up again, people telling her just stop reading it if she was over it, but they were having a ball, leading to it win our ‘best post of the year,’ due to it’s refusal to end, and for the enthusiasm level with which the neighborhood embraced this, rising to the occasion in this ongoing quest to find and celebrate everything weet bix. i loved it. (in the spirit of the chat chain, this may be the longest run-on sentence/paragraph/rambling explanation ever)
happy national neighbor day
—
“the curiosity of the neighbors about you, is a tribute to your individuality, and you should encourage it. ”
-quentin crisp
Sep27
the hell with it.
Reese’s is putting pretzels in peanut butter cups, because ‘the hell with it, it’s 2020’
Alexis Benveniste, from CNN Business, reports the following big news from the world of confections:
This year has been far from sweet, so Reese’s is embracing its salty side by adding pretzels to its peanut butter cups. The Hershey’s candy brand, which launched ‘breakfast cakes’ last month, introduced the newest addition with the slogan: “The hell with it. It’s 2020.”
The candy giant is nervous about Halloween this year, which typically accounts for 10% of Hershey’s annual sales, as the pandemic threatens to put a damper on trick-or-treating. The company is shifting its strategy for what is typically its biggest season. That means less Halloween-focused packaging and more family-sized packs, as many Americans gear up to celebrate at home. Reese’s with pretzels are set to hit stores in November, and the mini cups with pretzels won’t be available until January 2021.
“Let’s face it, we’re all feeling a little bit salty this year,” Ian Norton, Reese’s senior director, said in a statement. “In true Reese’s fashion, we channeled our feelings into sweet and salty deliciousness with new Reese’s Big Cups with Pretzels.”
Hershey, like other confectioners, relies on impulse purchases to drive sales. But people are shopping less during the pandemic, making new and somewhat outrageous candy combinations more important than ever for junk food companies. That’s why there are seemingly two dozen flavors of M&Ms in the candy aisle and a new variety of Lay’s potato chips every month.
—
“fortune befriends the bold.”
-emily dickinson
Sep26
shiny car.
is it for the music, the art, or the shine?
“whither goest thou, america, in thy shiny car at night?
– jack kerouac
Sep25
“your cadence is your music” – william shatner
on a walk in the beautiful early fall weather
taking in a bit of the world
listening to music
a man came up beside me to say
‘you have quite a cadence.’
something i’d never heard or considered
such a funny compliment
and happily noted.
—
“to brisk notes in cadence beating, glance their many-twinkling feet.”
-thomas gray
—
image credit: Science Magazine.org
Sep24
wrong crowd.
somebody didn’t listen to their mother
and
‘got in with the wrong crowd.’
—
“it’s a dangerous business, frodo, going out your door.
you step onto the road,
and if you don’t keep your feet,
there’s not knowing where you might be swept off to.”
j.r.r. tolkien, The Lord of the Rings–
Sep23
tangled.
all went well on my annual visit to the doctor
except
for a bit of a ‘gown snafu’
(this picture does not even begin to do it justice)
when i went to put it on
i couldn’t tell
which side
was supposed to be inside or outside
there were pockets both inside and outside
snaps all over the place
numerous ties of various sizes and locations
parts of the fabric were tucked into each other
no matter how i configured it
it just didn’t seem designed
for any sort of human form
knowing that i was under a time crunch
i quickly tried a few different scenarios
the multitude of mini-snaps
were designed for the hands of fairy
ties were in illogical places
i somehow had to craft my own sleeves
feeling as though
i was in a speed design contest
or playing a party game
i finally just settled on my final look
kind of wrapping the whole thing around me
covering things
snapping things
tying things
when my doc came in she started laughing
saying
“you are sleeveless on one side
the front is in back
things are tied up all over”
she was impressed by my creativity
when i asked about the gown
she smiled and said
“it’s a cognitive test”
that’s why she’s so great
i hope she was kidding.
—
“when everything becomes tangled, you should make the choice.”
-roman simonyan
Sep22
from green to gold.
one of my favorite author’s
beautiful words
about my favorite season
as we slip from summer into autumn
Sep21
to market, to market.
as i was scanning my groceries
in the self-checkout line
this unusual impulse-buy display was sitting next to me
a combo of giant candy bars and mini bottles of tequila
someone thought this marketing idea
would be a good fit for the market
the perfect mix to send you on your way and start your day off right!
it’s 2020 – what could possibly go wrong?
—
“market like the year you are in!”
-gary vaynerchuck
I didn't have my glasses on.... 