Monday, July 10, 2017

Monday morning things

EDITED TO ADD: NEW RULE TIME FOR COMMENTING: because of a spate of vague anonymous comments that seem to be positive but have little reference to the post they're made on, and I am suspicious that they are somehow a "test" before something bigger, I will NO LONGER APPROVE comments that are not "signed." You can still comment as "anonymous" but please tell me IN the comment who you are, or chances are, your comment will go where the goblins go, yo-ho, yo-ho.


* Purlewe: on "not needing" a giant Totoro: I feel the same way. Don't need one, have nowhere to put it, and yet, I kinda want one.

Then again, I didn't really "need" Pfred but ironically I find some nights when I'm sad or worried being able to throw an arm over him helps. And he helps make a little "nest" to have my head down in, so the light coming in (like, when the moon is full) is blocked a little.

Though I wonder: if something makes you happy and improves your sleep, isn't it kind of, sort of, a "need"? As someone who's had off and on insomnia (thank goodness, almost never for more than a night or two) down through the years, anything that improves sleep is important and valuable and somehow Pfred makes me feel "safe" and so I sleep better.

* My student e-mailed me: won't be here, her whole family is down with a stomach bug. Midweek least week (Wednesday), maybe I had the same thing - I never get VERY sick with stomach bugs (I think it's the yogurt I eat and the probiotics) but enough is going on to make me unhappy. And I lost my appetite, and I was chilled and tired.

So maybe it wasn't another "surprise! Now you are intolerant of this food that formerly was totally innocent!" (I was wondering it about sweet potato, as that was one thing I ate before the last bout) and just a virus where I didn't get clearly sick enough to go "Yup, it's a virus."

My appetite is back. I made "roasted" chicken thighs last night (just put poultry seasoning on them - and a little butter, as, annoyingly, like so many chicken parts now, you can only get boneless-and-skinless and bone-in tastes better and skin-on doesn't dry out so much.)

* One of the cases where knowing a bit of history* makes you cynical. This is making the rounds on Twitter:



Um, the very same Walter Winchell who was known for "attempting to destroy the careers of people both private and public whom he disliked" (From his Wikipedia biography....I just kind of looked there to verify what I kind of already suspected. And apparently he even went after Josephine Baker, who HAD been a friend, for calling him out over something. Ugh, I guess childishness among adults isn't a 21st century phenomenon)

I don't know but some of his behavior - particularly the "I'm going to destroy you by revealing this sensitive information you don't want out there" is the very example of adult bullying, and also, he seems not to have stood by his friends all that well...

And yeah, it's perhaps not as simple as that: apparently he was also anti-Nazi, but....the way he treated some people was, to use a modern turn of phrase, "problematic"

(*Very likely I first learned who he was from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, though also the lyrics of "The Lady is a Tramp" reference him, in that the eponymous "trampy" lady (who is really rather more a "good sort but perhaps not refined") reads every line of Winchell)

I mean, I like the photo - it features two of my favorite animals - but I really, really side-eye that quotation. Surely they could have found someone a bit more, I don't know, pure in their motives? Or perhaps they figure no one knows who Winchell was any more?

* So many future quilt plans. I think what I'm going to try to be a lot more about now is using fabric in a pattern I sort-of like for it, instead of trying to find the "perfect" pattern - and I want to start working down on the mountain of pre-cuts I have.

I am also seriously considering pressing off the Mary Engelbreit quilt and taking it in to be quilted this week. I did see one tiny place that looks like a water spot on it and I am really hoping it did not get wet or something when the roof in that room leaked. (If there is any water damage, it's very minimal, and I MIGHT be able to wash the quilt top on the gentle cycle if I have to - or wash it in a pillowcase so it doesn't fray)

I also learned from the latest e-mail from the quilt place that at least one of the women working there has the same surname as the owner of the car lot - so yes, it is a daughter, and either an unmarried daughter or someone who kept her maiden name.

I also bought a new Pam and Nicky Lintott Jelly Roll book at the JoAnn's (they have quite a line of them out). There are several quilts in there I want to make, so it will be good for working down on the accumulated fabric, and I may even have enough of the right "backgrounds" in the stash to work.

I also want to pull out the second sleeve of the Hagrid sweater and get back to that; it would be nice to have the sweater all finished for the first cold day in fall and it really will not take that long.

1 comment:

CGHill said...

In this post-historical age, I'd bet someone thought Winchell was the inventor of the donut. (And speaking of Winchell's Donuts, they seem to have withdrawn entirely from this part of the country.)