Category Archives: Life

Mar19

off to the nunnery.

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so off i go today

to the convent

where i’ll stay and meet up with

my sister and my aunt who is a sister

relax, talk, walk, meditate, share meals, laugh, cry, remember, tell stories

see her sacred and important places

shared spaces

if i was a nun

i imagine myself

singing and running through the hills

like sister maria in the alps

but i think this spring break

slow and easy

may be exactly perfect

a time of rest and renewal.

—

“get thee to a nunnery, go.”

– hamlet to ophelia (written by william shakespeare)

 

 

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photo credit: 20th century-fox studios, the sound of music, 1965

Mar18

‘trash has given us an appetite for art.’- pauline kael

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A New York garbage depot holds a secret collection of weird and wonderful refuse.

The Treasures in the Trash Collection

On the second floor of a nondescript warehouse owned by New York City’s Sanitation Department in East Harlem is a treasure trove—filled with other people’s trash.

Titanic. The Exhibition

– DMV

Titanic. The Exhibition

Most of the building is used as a depot for garbage trucks, but there’s a secret collection that takes over an entire floor. The space is populated by a mind-bogglingly wide array of items: a bestiary of Tamagotchis, Furbies; dozens of Pez dispensers; female weight lifting trophies; 8-track tapes; plates, paintings, sporting equipment and much more.

The Treasures in the Trash collection, was created entirely out of objects found by Nelson Molina, a now-retired sanitation worker, who began by decorating his locker. Collected over 30 years, it is a visual explosion, organized by type, color, and size. Atlas Obscura had the chance to visit the collection with the New York Adventure Club, take some photos, and revel in the vast creative possibilities of trash. Unfortunately, this isn’t a collection that keeps regular hours; drop-ins are not allowed. For more information on the occasional organized tours, email tours@dsny.nyc.gov. Sanitation workers are welcome anytime.

“uncommon thinkers reuse what common thinkers refuse.”

-j.r.d. tata

 

 

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source credits: atlas obscura, dylan thuras, new york adventure club

collection location: 343 East 99th St., New York, New York, 10029 usa

 

 

Mar16

fever.

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coats ‘n kids go separate ways

as they hope for spring

on these sunny days.

—

“it’s spring fever. that is what the name of it is. and when you’ve got it,

you want -oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want,

but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

-mark twain

Mar15

disappearing acts.

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on world sleep day

 

—

“for disappearing acts,

it’s hard to beat what happens to the eight hours

supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.”

-doug larson, american newspaper columnist

 

 

 

 

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photo credit: the daily mail, elizabeth spence (archie the rescue dog and nora)

Mar10

daylight saving time-ku.

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Heart-shaped craters on Mars
here we go again
time changing on the clock face
same hours in a day

—
“time is how you spend your love.”
-nick laird, northern ireland novelist and poet
—

mars has shared its heart-shaped craters, mesas, and depressions

with many of the missions that study the red planet.

photo credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Mar6

party babies.

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when a baby goes rogue looking for cracker crumbs in our classroom

at a class shower for my teaching partner’s soon to arrive first baby

roaming baby’s mom said not to worry,

she is just building up her immunity. 

clearly not her first child.

 

—

“babies are such a nice way to start people.”
― don herold

Mar5

the passing parade.

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the diag at center of the university of michgan campus

on a beautiful day

 a good people watching place to be.

—

“i’m still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to.

for me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.”

-garry trudeau

 

-Garry is an american satirist whose comic strip, doonesbury,

reflected social and political life in the united states during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Mar4

the whole world gets bigger.

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“oh how I love to read, she thought. ihe whole world gets bigger.”

— Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet The Spy (1964)

—

i always was interested in detectives and spies, and books were a way for me to feel a part of it.

without any real danger, but just enough suspense…

on international book day

Mar1

kids watching kids.

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where are those kids going and what are they up to?

—

today we went back to the farm

to see how it has changed since our fall visit

there were no leaves

there were no pumpkins

there were lots of new babies

there was not a lot of green

but the animals were as sweet as ever

and that never changes.

—

‘to teach children that animals have certain rights

creates in their minds a respect and regard for life.’

*-caroline earle white

*Caroline Earle White founded the first animal shelter in the United States in 1869. Born on September 28, 1833 in Philadelphia, Penn., White became an influential figure not only in animal welfare, but also fought for women’s suffrage and equality. White and a group of 30 women activists created the Women’s Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (WPSPCA), America’s first official animal shelter. Later known as the Women’s Humane Society, the organization pioneered programs that helped save homeless animals and employed animal cruelty officers to prevent and punish animal abuse. The organization still operates today as the Women’s Animal Center.

Feb29

on leap day, heed the gap.

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Zanzibar – Kirks Red Colobus Monkey, leaping from tree canopy
photo: Bernard Castelein
—

toads, rabbits, certain bird species, kangaroos and wallabies hop and jump.

by contrast frogs, hares and jackrabbits and monkeys leap,

the latter

routinely covering the distance from one large tree to another in a single leap.

—
“the most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps.”
*david lloyd george
*uk prime minister, 1916-1922,
one of the 20th century’s most famous radicals.
the first any only welshman to this office

 

 

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source credit: Bill Fife, GSU biologist with focus on natural history of vertebrates