It's Just Odd

A.  Say you're driving through Brunswick, Missouri.  The July 2009 population was 836 so this endeavor won't take long.  What's the first thing you notice?  The World's Largest Pecan!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this sucker weighs 12,000 pounds.  It's big.  It's also made of concrete, so no nibbling.

B.  Got a hankerin' to see a motorcycle built out of pop can tabs?  This lifelong dream can come true in Kansas.  Herman Divers has assembled such an objet d'art  and you can view it in the Grassroots Art Center, Lucas KS. Population 400.

C.  Remember Steve Canyon?  Quite the two-dimensional hunk as pictured in the comic strip of the same name.  You say two dimensions are not enough?  Would you believe ... Idaho Springs, Colorado went bonkers for Steve Canyon in the late 1940's.  The townspeople managed to inveigle the U. S. treasury into building a 40-foot limestone statute of, Steve Canyon.  Oh, I forgot the population: 1889.  They're huge!

Check out these books, they are bundles of fun.

Missouri Curiosities

Kansas Curiosities

Weird Colorado

Plantar Fasciitis is a Pain in the Foot

I know 3 people who have had this condition.  And I don't know that many people, so I consider this an epidemic.  By the way, can you believe the double i's?  Was that really necessary?   Plantar fasciitis effects more than 2 million people every year and that's just in the U.S.  Could it  have anything to do with the shoes, hmmmm?  The pain, as you can see in the lovely illustration, is not actually at the point of the plantar fascia.  But if the old plantar fascia gets strained or overstretched it will get inflamed and it's gonna hurt.  The condition can be caused by running, jumping, or just standing too long.  So napping looks better and better.

Source:  Easing the pain of plantar fasciitis.
Harvard Women's Health Watch; Aug2007, Vol. 14 Is. 12, p4-5, 2p, 5
as accessed through EBSCOHost

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day let us consider books that have Earth in the title.

Earth by David Brin  It's about literally saving the earth.  The entire planet!  Science Fiction!

Earth, air, fire and custard / Tom Holt  Actually an alternative earth.  Goblins!

Earth always endures : native American poems   Includes: The Death Song of White Antelope (Cheyenne).

Earth from space : Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum  Photos of our home globe!

Happy Appreciate Your Planet Day!

There are many many more titles you can access here:

Books with Titles that start with the word Earth

Don't stop at this page, keep going!

Mills Sisters

Hayley Mills turned 65 Monday!  How gray am I?  Coolest name ever - who called their kid 'Hayley' in the 50's?  Oh, the British.  I'm not a big Pollyanna fan, but loved her in films in which she was less sweet. Remember the deliciously snide little tune "Pink of Perfection"?  That was Hayley getting catty in Summer Magic. Then in That Darn Cat she got... a little feline pet. Har! Our Hayley also sang in The Parent Trap.  Who could forget "let's get together, yeah yeah yea, we'll have a real good ti-ime"?  Not my poor parents after we sang it 27,049 times during various car trips.  Then there is my favorite nun movie of all time The Trouble with Angels.  Hayley and her bang-straightening chum got up to all sorts of capers. I was very disappointed in the ending. So not scathingly brilliant. Hey,wondering who the other sister was?  Juliet Mills of Nanny and the Professor!  That show taught us there's nothing a woman in a cape and a Sherlock Holmes hat can't fix.  Learning!

Hayley Mills at the DMPL

Beetle News

I see New Beetle Design Has Been Revealed!  That's how they talk in the car biz.  It's less round.  So it looks more like a sports car and less like a bug.  I loved the original New Beetles that came out in 1998, such cheerful and happy little bubbles tootling around town. Beetles built from March 1953 to July 1957 had a small oval window in back. I had no idea!  Apparently they are quite collectible. And small enough to stack in your garage.  The cars didn't do too well at first in America.  In 1949 a total of... two Beetles were sold!  Whoohoo!  By 1960 the beentsy cars had caught on and 191,372 were sold.  Ah, you had me at "Fau Vee".

Source:  Volkswagen Beetle / Jonathan Harvey

Shirley Jackson - Crazy Good

Shirley Jackson is of course best known for The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House.  This lesser-known novel is way more twisted.  Two sisters, one in her twenties one in her teens, live with their disabled Uncle Julian in a huge house that’s going to seed.  Their extended family is dead - arsenic in the tea.  Who would do such a thing?  The town folk assume the older sister, Constance, is at fault.  Now Constance won’t leave the house.  So Mary Catherine, ‘Merricat’ has to go to town for supplies and face the hostile citizenry.  The local children have even composed a little Lizzie-Bordenesque ditty to express their opinion of the family.  Ahem.”Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? Oh no, said Merricat you’ll poison me.”  Merrricat, our narrator, is nuts. She protects herself from these taunts with a heaping spoonful of magical thinking.  The old ‘if I don’t see a dog in the next 3 blocks I’ll get home safe’ kind of thing.  Both the sisters and the uncle are quite content with their bizarre little lives. Until a good-looking male cousin upsets the teacart. Here’s a hint:  things don’t get better. Just more interesting.   One of my favorite books ever, highly recommended!  Our copies don't have this cool cover but don't let that stop you!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Nuptials Royale

Are you getting ready for the royal wedding?  As if you didn't know, Prince William and Kate Middleton will be wed Friday 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey.  I am giddy with excitement!  Well, as giddy as I was for Prince Charles wedding to Lady Di, which did not include getting up at 6 AM to watch the telly.  Loooved Lady Di's dress.  If you weren't there for the 80's you just wouldn't understand.  That decade was all about the big.  I recently saw home movies from that era and you could have hidden a comminity band in my hair, complete with the bandstand. And ginormous shoulders?  They make your hips looks smaller. Of course Kate Middleton is so slim and lovely she could wear a flour sack and look good.  And for those of you who haven't seen a flour sack, neither have I.  But I'm pretty sure they're not haute couture.

Books on the 1980's

Would You Like to Swing on a Star?

Or would you rather be a mule?  I alway thought this was a children's song but it was actually written for a movie from by-gone days.  This song, Swinging on a Star, is even from a movie I've seen with my own two eyeballs albeit probably 35 years ago.  Going My Way starring Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald is a stirring tale of the world's smoothest young priest, Father Chuck O'Malley, (Chuck!) and how he saved St Dominic's through the power of music.  A distaff Sister Act with fewer guns and biker bars?  Or more like Sister Act 2 what with the youth choirs.  Swinging on a Star won the Oscar for Best Song in 1944.  With lyrics like:

A mule is an animal with long funny ears

He kicks up at anything he hears

His back is brawny - and his brain is weak

He's just plain stupid with a - stubborn streak

And by the way, if you hate to go to school

You may grow up to be a mule

you can see why it was honored.  And why it's so fun for kids to sing!

Going My Way

Swinging on a Star  sheet music
CD's that include the song Swinging on a Star

Chicks in the City

What can you say about an enormous chick?  Whatever it wants!  Ha!  Ha! Seriously folks, it appears that raising chickens in an urban environment is still pretty popular.  Some people keep them for pets!  Grown chickens!  According to an article in Countryside; Small Stock Journal Nov/Dec2007, one Frank Hieiema of North Carolina likens his chicken coop to "a widescreen tv." "We don't have cablevision because we get enjoyment watching the chickens...." Plus they eat a lot of bugs. The chickens do. The eggs?  Rumor is they're fabulous.  More information?  Coming right up:

Chickens in the back yard.  On purpose!
Building chicken coops for dummies