Friday, December 31, 2010
The Digital Story of the Nativity
I came across this a little late, but I thought it was so hysterical that I decided to post it anyway.Even if it's not Christmas, it's worth watching.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Bloody Eclipse of the Moon
The Moon was dipped in the deep coppery hues caused by atmospheric refraction. When the Moon enters the Earth’s shadow completely, the refracted sunlight is still able to reach the Moon and light it a little. This light passes through the deep layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, which filters the blue end of the spectrum more, and so the remaining light is deep brown, red, orange or yellow. "They" say it's one of the signs in Revelation, but we seem to be nearly submersed in "signs" from Revelation. Hmmm.
Something interesting to note about this particular Winter Solstice and all the extra high vibrational activating energy available to us is this. When you add up the numbers of the month day and year, 12-21-2010 is actually a 9 in sacred numerology. (12=3, 21=3, 2010=3/3+3+3=9) 9 came into the universe as energizing endings and beginnings, exhales and inhales.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Global War on Drugs
International Drug Policy: Animated Report 2009
In a way, given the facts of the global meltdown that seems to be going on in many areas: finance, war, religion, nutrition, etc. ad nauseum, this one seems almost insignificant. But it's earning billions of dollars each year for the players. So much money wasted by those who need it for other things, including medical treatment and so much of our nations' wealth filtered into the secret bank accounts of the greedy relative few.. How much money can you spend before you die? Is it true that whoever dies with the most toys wins? What ever happened to "you can't take it with you," and "It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven?"
Saturday, December 4, 2010
My Southern Thanksgiving
The Secret to Perfect Collards
I have always been a big city girl, and when my brother and I were growing up in Coconut Grove (a suburb--now--of Miami) my mother was back in school after running a successful and exclusive high-fashion clothing store for many years. Her alteration department had eight women working in it full time; Cuban women, and boy could they sew. And lined all the seams and hems with lace...the whole nine yards.
And my mother was the best. She could design, cut a pattern and whip up a little something with bound button-holes in the twinkling of an eye. In order to take a job teaching mens' tailoring at the high-rise technical school in Downtown Miami, she had to get a Master's in Home Ec. I guess that's what they called it, anyway. In her case they waived almost all of the course requirements due to her vast experience.
My mother was also one of those people who was also an excellent public speaker, and on one particular occasion she was giving a presentation at a seminar of some sort having to with her classes or degree, and brought the house down by sharing with the audience the easiest way to wash spinach, which in those days was invariably covered with mud if not worse.
She told them to remove the leaves from the bundle and rinse then spin them for a few minutes in the washing machine. After howling with laughter, a lot of people didn't believe her until they had tried it, but I have washed spinach that way my whole life. No muss, no fuss. Proceed directly to stem-removal.
A few years ago I made a move to the Very-Deep South. I had many cultural shocks in store. Stories, maybe for another day.
This Thanksgiving, my daughter was here visiting from Boston, and she and I were invited to a neighbor's for dinner. After discussing it, we decided to call and tell her to choose whatever dish she least wanted to fix, and we would make it. She confessed to a craving for collards, but just really didn't think she would have the time to mess with them.
The next day, after reading the instructions on a soul-food recipe site, I set out to acquire the requisite five bunches of collards, ham hocks, and the stuff (I'm still not sure what it was, and not sure I wanted to know) that the gentleman in the meat department assured me I had to include for the "soul" to be fully present. I cleverly slid them (it?) under a package of something else when he wasn't looking. I thought of the lunch lady in Beauty Shop.
Now five bunches of collards is somewhat more that a bushel, I think, so my daughter and I decided to use the old tried-and-true family method of washing spinach. There was just one little problem. We couldn't get the washing machine to stop. While I was tearing my hair out and we were both envisioning days of scooping collard mush out of the washer, followed by an almost certainly expensive visit from a repairman, we finally manage to halt the beast after spinning out the water, and took a cautious peek. Oh yeah, about what I had envisioned.
We started scooping. A faint ray of hope began to break through the despair. The collards had turned themselves into 2-3 inch pieces, and the thrashing had removed the stems. Ye gods and little fishes. I had gone my Who's Who of Commerce and Industry mother one better. Washing, drying and de-stemming all in one easy 10 minute step. The only thing we had to do, was pick the huge chunks of stem out of each handful.
Which I cooked, according to recipe, minus that one little bit of "soul," and everybody raved about them. Were they being polite or did they taste like they were supposed to? I haven't got a clue. I won't believe I know what a collard is supposed to taste like until I've had some prepared by an acknowledged Southern born and raised collard expert.
Each photo is a link back to the blog or website where it was found.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Garfield on the Oil Crisis
A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
Well, there's a very simple answer. Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn't know we were getting low.
The reason for that is purely geographical. ~~~ Our OIL is located in: ~~~ ALASKA ~~~ California ~~~ Coastal Florida ~~~ Coastal Louisiana ~~~ North Dakota ~~~ Wyoming ~~~ Colorado ~~~ Kansas ~~~ Oklahoma ~~~ Pennsylvania And Texas ~~~
Our dipsticks are located in DC Any Questions? NO? Didn't think So.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Famous Economic Hitman at Omega
The Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York, is an amazing place. You can get away from the world there. It's totally isolated, with very little contact with the outside world. Oh, of course you can take your cell phone and stay on it constantly and defeat the whole purpose of the experience, but most people don't. They may take them, but usage is allowed only in a few areas, so things tend to stay pretty mellow.Even to use a computer, you have to trek to the cafe. And it can be a trek, as the campus is large and hilly.
There's always something going on. You can go there to take a class in an unbelievably wide variety of subjects, ranging from alternative things of every type you can imagine from medicine to music, but also things that relate to politics and global affairs. Everything is aimed toward making the world a better place for everyone.
When you're taking a class, the facilities on the wooded campus are so widely separated that you feel as though what you're doing is the only thing going on. No noise from anything else, but at mealtimes, in the dining hall, you realize how many other people are there. To give you an idea of the variety of what's available, when I went last summer to take an energy medicine course, John Perkins, famous author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, was also there giving a class. Here is an interview with John:
Sunday, August 8, 2010
I Love the Idea of Tiny Houses
I am really taken with the idea of a tiny house. Particularly if I could combine it with the practice of building houses on barges that is so popular in Seattle. I'm going to have to do some research to see what I would have to do to combine the two. I live now, and have lived before in areas that have/had massive river systems with amazing views,
PR: 
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I really think that I would like to do it. I have actually been thinking about it for years. To serendipitously land on the page of a tiny house builder was really an amazing thing. And on the same day that I serendipitously, accidentally landed on the B&B page. It has really made a difference in the way I view my possible futures; a problem that had been driving me crazy for years.
My friends are scattered all over. My only offspring lives in sublets all over the world. My parents and former husband are deceased. It's both a blessing and a curse to have so much freedom. I don't, any longer have anyplace I have to live, but on the other hand that makes the variety of choices almost overwhelming. This could be the answer. I will have to do some research to put it all together. But here is another "Tiny House" video:
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Women of the Storm
They have now been damaged in a far more permanent way by us. Human beings, people. Thousands of lives were lost in Hurricane Camille and in Katrina when the tiny towns were no longer just fishing villages but tourist destination, but nature is more merciful. Nature does no permanent damage to the earth, and allows us a chance to rebuild.
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