Author Archives: beth

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About beth

Ann Arbor-ite writes about enjoying life with all of its ironies and surprises.

rememberance.

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“on memorial day, i don’t want to only remember the combatants. there were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets, who started preaching peace, men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live”

— eric burdon, the animals

 

 

 

 

 

 

image credit: kalikirkpatterns.com

animal instincts.

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when glenn had to go through painful surgery

and was at last home again

tiny sweet olive

approached him gently

touched her head to his

let him eat their favorite food first

and moved quietly

next to him

at his special place by the window

just lying there

in silence

for hours on end

while he recovered

offering him

the quiet comfort

of their tender friendship.

“besides love and sympathy,

animals exhibit other qualities

connected with the social instincts

which in us would be called moral.”

― charles darwin

jazz.

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miles davis quartet, newport jazz festival, 1955

in honor of international jazz day

never stop taking those risks

and play on.

“risk is at the heart of jazz. every note we play is a risk.”

-steve lacy

 

 

image credit: vintage industrial jazz

hidden stuff.

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rocket the turtle is the sun in the center of the kinders’ universe.

 

“everything in nature contains all the powers of nature.

everything is made of one hidden stuff.”

-ralph waldo emerson

culinary adventures.

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food can be so fun and festive
even when you’re not quite sure what to to do with it.
“your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. enjoy the ride.”
-anthony bourdain – kitchen confidential: adventures in the culinary underbelly
honeybee market, detroit, mi, usa

whimsy.

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Spread across two floors of a regal old 1920s bank building in Astoria, Oregon, this collection is packed with unexpected finds at every turn. It’s a smorgasbord of quirky curiosities, so you never know what treasures or trinkets you’ll come across.

There’s little rhyme or reason to the assortment of oddities. The oldest item, a Native American chair seat made from colored porcupine quills, dates from the 1850s. But the rest of the whimsical wonders are a medley of old and new artifacts from around the world.

You can climb inside a full-sized replica of a British canal narrowboat parked unceremoniously within the old bank building, scan the exhibits for intricate wax boxes, or simply wander the room until you stumble across a piece of vintage clothing or jewelry that sparks your interest.

There are so many things to see, it’s difficult to decide where to start. A striking collection of Folies Bergère dresses and hats immediately catches your eye as you enter—some of the hats even have the name of the dancer who once wore them scrawled inside. Dolls, both daintily beautiful and disturbingly lifelike, are scattered throughout like well-stationed guards. Taxidermy creatures, including a charmingly cute miniature horse, lurk in unexpected places and antique curios hide among newly commissioned works.

The museum is the work of Trish Bright, a retired stockbroker who bought the former bank with her husband in 2005. The curated odds and ends that fill the space are her ever-growing passion project.

“museums are custodians of epiphanies,

and these epiphanies

enter the central nervous system and deep recesses of the mind.”

-george lois

 

 

 

 

credits: museum of whimsy, trish bright, atlas obscura

kinder in the grass.

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kinder finds the perfect place right in the middle of the great wide open. 

“science has never drummed up

quite as effective a tranquilizing agent

as a sunny spring day.”

-w. earl hall

recovery.

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heroes all.

“survival is nothing more than recovery.”

-dianne feinstein

 

 

 

credits: martin bernetti, afp, getty images mental floss

gravity.

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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

where hobbies, hijinks, and capers go bad = my childhood #4

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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’