Beautiful spirals

Here

Regina Spektor - Samson

Cousins

Lena Horne - Stormy Weather

The Death of Lady Mondegreen

A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song, due to near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning.

Paintings of Provincetown

Olivia in Santa Monica

Library goodness

The world's smallest library.

Historical ephemera

More here

Fairy or wood sprite?

Another Disney photo from last month . . . Olivia loves the fairy world.

Where am I? #15

Here

To clear up the confusion

Mid-century modern chair flowchart

Luck is life

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used a horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they left him on the farm. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?

Luck is life.

Snow Bound

Yes, that's a car in there.

The perfect gift for people who don't like being told to calm down

Mary Poppins

My daughter as Michael in her school's performance of Mary Poppins

Eternal truths

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830)

Where am I? #14

Here

The Usual Feline Suspects

The Berlin Wall

An animated summary of the history of the Berlin Wall - here

Dizzyworld

The velocipede

The earliest usable and much copied velocipede was German Karl Drais' Laufmaschine (German for "running machine"), the world's first 'push bike' or balance bicycle (sometimes also called 'swiftwalker' in English), patented in January 1818 and very popular for a short while both in France (where it was called draisienne), and the United Kingdom (where it was nicknamed dandy horse, as it was very popular among dandies). It was made entirely of wood and had no practical use except on a well-maintained pathway in a park or garden.

Huntington Conservatory

Demi-botanist

Another good idea

A "spin" on the water transportation idea:

In developing countries the simple act of doing the laundry is a lot of effort. The major problems are bad ergonomics (in washing and transporting), distant water supply areas and the burden to carry the heavy laundry to and from the water source . . . more

Everything is not what it seems

"For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over the inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it."

The GEO600 has stumbled upon something incredible . . . more here.

Olivia's Panda

Aquaria

Still Life by Olivia

Out West

I was born in New England and have always had a fondness for the scenery there. But the stark beauty of the terrain out here in the West can be breathtaking.


Photo: Looking southwest from Victorville, a belt of fog silhouettes Joshua trees in the desert below the snow covered Mt. Waterman and the Angeles National Forest. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

What is your secret to a long life?

"In a word: optimism. I look at the good. When you are relaxed, your body is always relaxed. When you are pessimistic, your body behaves in an unnatural way. It is up to us whether we look at the good or the bad. When you are nice to others, they are nice to you. When you give, you receive."

From an interview with 106-year-old Alice Herz-Sommer, a friend of Franz Kafka

Olivia's Downhill Racing

At 8,000 feet in the Sierras. A couple of wild rides, wipe-outs and in the end, she was still smiling . . .