May24
the good stuff
Author Archives: beth
May23
“Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.” ― Mark Twain
i before e, except after c?
silent e at the end of a word with a long vowel in the center?
at times, who in the abc really knows?
in the recent comedy, ‘bad words,’
jason bateman plays an adult who participates in a kids’ spelling bee
and is required to spell the word,
‘floccinaucinihilipilification.’
(the action or habit of estimating something as worthless)
ouch.
===
“The story’s what matters; spelling’s overrated.” ― Adam Langer, The Salinger Contract
—
image credits: focus features, growing jeweled rose.com
May21
Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea. – Craig Bruce
it seemed like such a good idea at the time.
brilliant, in fact.
we were teenagers, with time to kill, and we had a half day of school.
i invited my friends over for an afternoon of watching our favorite soap opera, all my children.
all sorts of crazy fun was going on with luke and laura and the people of pine valley
and we were going to watch it in style.
my friends were happy to come along for the ride.
this is how i imagined us watching the show that afternoon….
reality was a bit different however.
we took a fan outside,
wheeled the old tv out on a cart,
plugged everything in with a giant extension cord,
got the lounge chairs and drinks in place on the patio,
put on the sunglass and the sunscreen,
whipped up a huge buffet of all of the mini frozen pizzas in the house,
and then.
my mom came home.
and shut down the whole operation.
something about feeding the whole neighborhood
and moving the entire living room to the patio.
and trashing the kitchen.
and as we cleaned up and put everything back,
we made plans to do it the next week at my friend’s house.
it was kind of like a teenage version of ‘cat in the hat’.
except my mom came home in the middle of it.
—
Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.
Dennis Wholey
May19
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. – Isak Dinesen
This photo series by Rose-Lynn Fisher captures tears of grief, joy, laughter and irritation under the microscope.
Tears aren’t just water.
They’re primarily made up of water, salts, antibodies and lysozymes,
but the composition depends on the type of tear.
There are three main types –
basal tears, reflex tears, and weeping tears.
As you can see,
they can look incredibly different when evaporated and placed under a microscope.
—
Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.
Albert Camus
—
More info: http://bit.ly/RJqvK7
Images by Rose-Lynn Fisher, via the Smithsonian Magazine and ScienceAlert.
May18
duende
May18
be careful what you wish for and how you pose for a picture
and the results are in – mark and i have guest posted on each other’s sites, as the end of our friendly wager –
the final tally in the biggest bloggers baseball wager ever is syracuse chiefs 5 games won, toledo mud hens 3 games won.
after a two-week stretch fraught with tight nerves, generous volleys of good-humored trash-talking and on-field triple-a baseball that went down to game eight before a 9-3 chiefs victory in toledo’s fifth third field clinched the title, i have learned a bit.
my last bit of gloat shall come in the accompanying photo. It was taken during my dear wife karen and i’s trip to watch game two of the series at the chief’s nbt bank stadium. truth be told, i came with two other signs: one in case the mud hens won the series, and one in case of a 4-4 deadlock.
I had fun following the results, posting jokes, parrying with beth, and our regular readers and friends who comment on both of our blogs.
so what did i take away from this foray into inter-blogal diamond doings?
triple-a baseball is fun, inexpensive, good for its communities, and played at a high level of talent. oh, i knew that going in, but the reminder is always nice.
i actually like the toledo mud hens, particularly pitcher kyle lobstein, third baseman mike hessman and mascot jim flealand.
i was correct in suggesting this little experiment to beth. when i saw her post about attending the outdoor hockey game and love of the detroit red wings, and comments about the tigers and the teams of her alma mater michigan, i knew i had found a kindred sports fan as well as somebody who appreciates aiming an eye at the vagaries and curiosities of life in general. indeed.
and so i typed this in beth style, sans capital letters, in homage to e.e. cummings i do believe, but perhaps because she has a balky shift key on her main typing keyboard.
i heartily invite you regular readers of i didn’t have my glasses on to hop over to markbialczak.com to check out what beth cross-posted on my blog today about this little escapade. if you happen to spot a headline that interests you on my sidebar, please do click and read. follow, if you wish. come back daily. i’d love to talk.
speaking of the future … my alma mater, maryland, joins the big ten come fall. my terps will be playing beth’s wolverines. there may be some more trash-talking ahead.
Have you ever made a friendly wager and then felt a little bad about settling up? Are you a comfortable trash-talker? Do you despise me even a little bit for the sign I’m holding in the picture?
May17
thought for this weekend and beyond
May16
so close, and yet so farr…
thanks jamie farr, for supporting our mud hens
as they pulled it off in the ninth inning last night.
tonight we can tie up this epic series in the final game,
and show writer/rival mark
who’s who in this minor league showdown in toledo.
and i’ll be there to cheer them on.
http://markbialczak.com/2014/05/01/chiefs-vs-mud-hens-and-theres-going-to-be-some-sort-of-sign/
May15
and the baseball battle continues…perhaps with a tie?
and my toledo mudhens got wet yesterday and we lost the game,
but there is always today and always tomorrow.
and i will be there to cheer them on in person tomorrow night.
and i will be there to settle a friendly bet with blog writer friend, mark.
he is crowing all over the place about his believed chiefs from syracuse,
but we shall see, we shall see….
Chiefs vs. Mud Hens, and there’s going to be some sort of sign
If you cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.
Nikita Khrushchev
May15
flokati: a dance, a cereal, or a beloved uncle’s nickname?
turns out it’s none of the above. it’s the rug i have on my wood floor, and it’s wool comes from a mountain goat or lamb or some sort of unknown animal, perhaps an otter, but it’s hard to know for sure.
and after such a long and hearty winter, it was time to wash my filthy flokati and bring it back into the fresh and clean spring feel now inhabiting the cottage. i researched online and found that the scandanavians traditionally throw it outside on top of a pile of fresh snow and beat it into clean submission with a stick. i then went with the laundromat option, so as to maintain at least some illusion of normalcy with my neighbors for just a bit longer.
i invited my friend m to go on a ‘goat washing adventure’ with me. she was in immediately, as she is up for most anything. and while she wasn’t sure exactly what we’d be doing, she knew that we always have fun doing whatever it might be. upon notifying her family, she was quickly questioned by her daughters, who said they never knew you could wash a rug, and asked why it had never happened in their house. and why it was never going to. i understood this, and if mine was not so ‘pet-like’, it never would have happened in my house either. that settled, we headed off to super sud’s.
all you need:
the flokati, some strong coffee, a bottle of gentle woolite, lots of coins. good company,
and of course, a dog brush.
greeted by the manager, with no bra, a benjamin the dog sweatshirt,
and a personality like a drill sergeant, who told us not to overload, we were warned and ready.
ummmm…
there were so many options, signs, warnings. so much potential for trouble.
so much math.
i should have listened better in school.
more math! and then, not working after all.
but, somehow it had a homey feel about it.
and it had with something for everyone.
the kitchen sink, with notes from mom.
the tech center.
the two odd cousins in the den.
the food and entertainment in the family room area.
the sports memorabilia corner.
the centrifuge?
the book nook.
here i am, reading and laughing out loud at
‘humor at the speed of life’,
written by fellow blogger, ned, (http://nedhickson.com).
and here is m, after the wash,
fluffing the flokati, with the dog brush,
bringing it back to it’s original luster.
she is taking her job very seriously.
and she is primping and pampering her
like dorothy upon arriving in the emerald city.
and at last, she is a beauty once more.
and after much coffee, many laughs,
more warnings, and a few scoldings from the sergeant,
we are on our way.
and the flokati
is ready to be welcomed back to the cottage,
fresh and fluffy, once more.
whatever it might be.
and now that i look at it,
i think it might be muskrat wool.
—
“I’ve buried a lot of my laundry in the back yard.”
― Phyllis Diller
