when you can’t get your dough to flatten
your hands are tired
you have to improvise
use all resources at hand
as one of our young bakers recently illustrated
by using a unique and innovative method
i had been previously unaware of.
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the bread you bake by your own sweat tastes better than the dishes of sultans.
-Armenian mothers
LEGO is launching a botanical collection for serial plant killers.
LEGO’s products aren’t just for kids. Last year, the company dedicated an entire section of its website to adult customers, featuring more complex sets that clock in at thousands of pieces. The latest collection caters to builders who are all grown up—though maybe not grown enough to keep plants alive on their own.
As designboom reports, the Botanical Collection from LEGO reimagines flowers, succulents, and bonsai trees as plastic brick sculptures. The elaborate sets hold their own against the living plants you might find at your local nursery. The “potted” flowers in the line include the elegant white orchid and the vibrant Bird of Paradise. Once you’re done building, the 756-piece flower bouquet set is ready to be displayed in a real vase of your choosing (no water required).
“though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… convince me that you have a seed there, and i am prepared to expect wonders.”
-henry david thoreau
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credits: michelle debczak,design boom, lego
sign above the desk:
“hello customers, welcome to the garage. i am your 4th floor guardian m-f after 4pm.”
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we happened upon this happy workspace in a most unlikely place
with a comfy swivel chair occupied after 4pm
a christmas card that says ‘joy’
a boom box
a tiny desk
a plastic plant that dances
an air freshener
a snow globe
a piece of hanging art
and a welcoming sign
what a wonderful workspace
everything someone would need
what a special person
who welcomes you
watches over you
keeps you happy and safe
on the 4th floor
a safe haven in the world.
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“i’ve got a theory; if you love your workspace, you’ll love your work a little more.”
-cynthia rowley
much love to my three daughters, each one now a mother too, on mothers day.
even if i only rarely called you by your right name on the first try.
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“mothers are not the nameless,
faceless stereotypes
who appear once a year on a greeting card with their virtues set to prose,
but women who have been dealt a hand for life
and play each card one at a time the best way they know how.
no mother is all good or all bad,
all laughing or all serious,
all loving or all angry,
ambivalence rushes through their veins.”
-erma bombeck
i have never seen a better radioactive spider in my life.
—
“everything you can imagine is real”
-pablo picasso
Happy 92nd birthday to Nancy Drew! The first volume in the long-running girl detective series, “The Secret of the Old Clock,” was published 92 years ago under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. In a tribute to the iconic sleuth, author Theodore Jefferson writes, “Agency. It is that which forms the foundation for any hero’s ability to save the day. In America, agency for teenage girls in literature made its debut in 1930 in the person of Nancy Drew.” This original Mighty Girl character paved the way for many more heroic female characters and inspired generations of real-life girls and women.
Ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt Benson and later revised by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, the first volume of Nancy Drew had a huge influence on young readers. Nancy Drew provided them with “stories of someone like themselves who had a positive effect on the world instead of passively sitting at home… She is a character with that magical ‘what if’ question woven into her identity, and one that effortlessly captures the imaginations of readers by allowing them to participate in a world where the answers to that question are just as entertaining as the stories themselves.”
At the time, some viewed Nancy Drew as a poor role model, “contradicting adults while she squared off with the villains… she is mechanically inclined and at the same time doesn’t act like most people in the 1930s would have expected a teenage girl to act.” In fact, many libraries and bookstores refused to carry the Nancy Drew stories. Despite — or because of — that disapproval, kids collected the books voraciously, and in the midst of the Depression, used copies were shared and traded like trading cards are today. As a result, “any kid, even those who couldn’t afford new books, would very likely get to read every adventure starring their favorite character.”
The tremendous influence of Nancy Drew continues to this day asserts Jefferson: “It is difficult to overstate how powerful Nancy Drew’s presence remains in literature and in other media. She has influenced film, comics, video games and animation for [90] years, and will continue to do so as long as teenage girls take the lead as our heroes in the imaginative worlds of adventure.”
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i loved this book series and it inspired me to be part of a neighborhood gang of childhood detectives
(the four crows – see my post below)
and i am still a huge fan of true crime, not as a criminal,
but in trying to solve the who’s, why’s, and how’s.
—
https://ididnthavemyglasseson.com/?s=four+crows
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On leaving work, at work…
“I don’t promise to forget the mystery, but I know I’ll have a marvelous time.”
-nancy drew
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credits: theodore jefferson, the mary sue, mighty girl
not me, but yes it is one of my dream halloween costumes.
—
i don’t drink anymore for cinqo de mayo, i celebrate with mexican food, or as it’s known in mexico: ‘food.’
-craig ferguson
“how does this happen? gradually, then suddenly.”
– ernest hemingway
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art credit: red diamond
World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference. Since then, May 3rd is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.
After almost 30 years, the historic connection made between the freedom to seek, impart and receive information and the public good remains as relevant as it was at the time of its signing. May 3rd acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom. It is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. It is an opportunity to:
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“a free press can, of course, be good or bad,
but, most certainly without freedom,
the press will never be anything but bad.”
-albert camus
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image credit: brittanica.com
yes it was yesterday, i think they may have over-celebrated and lost count.
the fairy dance
the soft stars are shining,
the moon is alight;
the folk of the forest
are dancing tonight:
o swift and gay
is the song that they sing:
they float and sway
as they dance in a ring.
o seek not to find them,
the wee folk so fair;
they’re shy as the swallow
and swift as the air:
if you come, they are gone
like a snowflake in may:
like a breath, like a sigh,
they vanish away.
-katherine davis (1892-1980)
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image source: peter gray’s vintage art and postcards
I didn't have my glasses on.... 