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Posts Tagged ‘Brain Pickings


7.6.14 … long story short …

Tags: blogging, Brain Pickings, culture, fruit pizza, It's A Nice Day For A Flash Wedding, kith/kin, lists, long story short, marshmallow Roasting Art, NPR, past posts, statistics, Third Rock Fire Pit, Umberto Eco

long story short:  OK, why do I “clip”?  Long story short … it’s my filing cabinet.

long story short

Sl. to make a long story short. Okay, long story short: everything that goes up comes down, okay? Then the guy comes over, and—long story short—\”You got a match?\”

See also: long, short, story

via long story short – Idioms – by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia..

So I was looking back over past posts for 7.6 and I found several worthy of reposting.

Umberto Eco, lists, culture, Brain Pickings:  So I said I love lists ….

As a lover and maker of lists, this made my heart sing: In 2009, the great Umberto Eco became a resident at the Louvre, where he chose to focus his studies on “the vertigo of lists,” bringing his poetic observational style to the phenomenon of cataloguing, culling, and collecting. He captured his experience and insights in The Infinity of Lists: An Illustrated Essay, where he charts the Western mind’s obsessive impulse for list-making across music, literature and art, an impulse he calls a “giddiness of lists” but demonstrates that, in the right hands


The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists — the shopping list, the will, the menu — that are also cultural achievements in their own right.”

~ Umberto Eco

via Umberto Eco on Lists and Making Infinity Comprehensible | Brain Pickings.

via 7.6.13 … Umberto Eco on Lists: “The list is the origin of culture.” | Dennard’s Clipping Service.

And when I looked back at this wonderful fire pit,

Third Rock Fire Pit. Third Rock – Earth and all its glory reveal a fiery inner core through the continents of our planet.

via Third Rock Fire Pit.

I found this (I want one by the way!):

Marshmallow Roasting Art via Marshmallow Roasting Art.

statistics, blogging: Everyday I check to see what has interested “my” readers.  My most popular posts are the “naked yoga” and the Ben Judah version of the “serenity prayer.”


Title Views

Home page / Archives 9

7.3.14 … when cultures collide and the result is rollicking laughter, the deep in your belly kind, it’s all good … I would always rather be happy than dignified … 6

7.4.14 … It’s not the 4th of July without TOMATO PIE! … And a history lesson … Happy 200th anniversary, The Star Spangled Banner … What’s Queen Charlotte got to do with anything? … 3

7.5.14 … Summer nights are worth staying up for … 2

7.12.13 … Alto del Perdon Spain: ‘Where meet the path of the wind and the path of the stars” … 1

1.12.13 … all my babies are gone … almost … 1

3.24.14 … Boo, Haman … Oh, and in case you missed it, ALL OF AMERICA IS ELIMINATED … First naked yoga … Now naked pilgrims … 1

1.25.14 … pilgrimages and naked yoga … 1

1.27.2011 … Felt like I was in the blue soup scene of Bridget Jones’ Diary last night. 🙂 1

Total views of posts on your blog 25

And here are a  few new ones … and yes they are random!

It’s A Nice Day For A Flash Wedding, NPR:  Where would I want a pop up wedding?

You’ve heard of pop-up restaurants, flash mobs and other hipster happenings. Now comes a pair of entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., offering pop-up weddings for those who want to elope, but do it with flair.

Locations are never booked ahead of time, planning is minimal and fingers are crossed that you and your partner don’t get asked to leave before you are pronounced husband and wife, or wife and wife.

PopWed Co., which started last January, procures the wedding license, chooses a creative location, takes the photographs and performs the ceremony.

via It’s A Nice Day For A Flash Wedding : NPR.


fruit pizza, kith/kin: And years ago, I had fruit pizza at the home of my college roommate.  I make it around the 4th of July which is also near her birthday.  Happy birthday!! Fruit Pizza I Recipe – Allrecipes.com.


4.26.14 … so, does watching a youtube clip of a labyrinth walk count as a walk? … “Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.” – Proverbs 4: 26 …

Tags: "How Beloved Chef and Entrepreneur Julia Child Conquered the World: An Illustrated Life Story", $5.2M experiment in sustainability, 2014 Labyrinth Walks, @ TeamCoco.com, bacon, baseball, Berkshire Eagle Online, Brain Pickings, Chartres and the Chartres Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth, Great-Start Breakfast Cookies, Hotel Hotellerie Saint Yves, International Living Future Institute, Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, Living Building Challenge project, Malcolm Miller at Chartres, national sport, Podcast: The Unwritten Jersey Rules, Proverbs 4: 25, recipes, Scripture for walking the Labyrinth, Spiritual Pilgrimage, The Atlantic, The Chartres Labyrinth, The Daily Fix - WSJ, The League of Extraordinary Black Gentlemen, The Panda Cam Is Back!, Theodore R. Johnson, Visitor Guide, Williams College's Kellogg House, You Tube, YouTube

Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth, 2014 Labyrinth Walks, You Tube: I MAY go to Chartres on a Friday in August, so I spent my evening researching. And I think I will count watching this YouTube clip as a walk …

via Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, a Spiritual Pilgrimage – YouTube.

As one of the best-known examples in the world, much has been written and said about the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral. But what is fact and what fiction?

Jeff Saward provides some answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about this labyrinth…

via Chartres Labyrinth FAQs.

Scripture for walking the Labyrinth, Labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, Spiritual Pilgrimage, YouTube, Proverbs 4: 25:


Malcolm Miller at Chartres, YouTube:

World-class historian and instructor for thousands of young, visiting American students offers an architect’s “hands on” visualization of flying buttresses. passports.com

via ▶ Malcolm Miller at Chartres – YouTube.

Chartres and the Chartres Cathedral, Visitor Guide:


Musée des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum of Chartres):

Musée des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Museum of Chartres, located just behind the cathedral)

Centre International du Vitrail – Stained Glass Center

Conservatoire du Machinisme et des Pratiques Agricoles, an agricultural museum with exhibits of old machines and artifacts of the rural life around Chartres.

Muséum des Sciences Naturelles et de Préhistoire (Natural Science and Prehistory Museum)

Where to Stay

Hotel Hotellerie Saint Yves offers simple lodging with private baths in a former seminary building. Individuals on retreat or groups can stay here; the price is very reasonable for a hotel a around 100 meters from the cathdral.

via Chartres and the Chartres Cathedral – Visitor Guide.

The Chartres Labyrinth:

Typical of many Gothic Cathedrals, Chartres Cathedral has a labyrinth laid into the floor. The Labyrinth is dated to around 1200.

David’s Discoveries: A tale of two labyrinths gives you a good idea of what to expect concerning the labyrinths at Chartres:

“Unsurprisingly, of the 2 million or so visitors who tramp through the cathedral each year, only a fraction of them walk the labyrinth. It’s accessible – meaning the chairs are removed from the floor space the labyrinth occupies – on Fridays only, from April to October. Those who arrive on the wrong day or in the wrong season head outside to the grass labyrinth, where they mix with the locals.”

For more on Chartres, see our Chartres Travel Directory.


Great-Start Breakfast Cookies, recipes:   Great-Start Breakfast Cookies recipe from Pillsbury.com.

The League of Extraordinary Black Gentlemen, Theodore R. Johnson, The Atlantic:  There is a lot to think about here.  I remember being asked once,  “Does anyone ever ask you what it feels like to be white?”

Today, blacks are more educated than they’ve ever been and occupy more of the middle class than they once did. The electorate has desegregated to the point where black voter turnout rates surpassed white for the first time in history in 2012. There are black Fortune 500 CEOs and media moguls, politicians and white-collar professionals, who have tremendous influence on American society. And yes, even our president is black. These are direct results of the value the community placed on elevating our exceptional members and making blackness palatable to the whole nation.

In the 21st century, the Tenthers—the solution class DuBois envisioned—have arrived. These college-educated, middle-class black folks have left the South and inner cities to settle in suburbia, and fashioned an identity as bound up in class as it is in race. But like DuBois himself, they struggle with a double-consciousness—a twoness that makes it possible for them to enter predominantly white spaces while still holding positions of esteem in spheres of blackness. They move about both comfortably, but don’t fit neatly into either.

via The League of Extraordinary Black Gentlemen – Theodore R. Johnson – The Atlantic.

Williams College’s Kellogg House, $5.2M experiment in sustainability, Berkshire Eagle Online, Living Building Challenge project,  International Living Future Institute:

WILLIAMSTOWN — In 1794, Kellogg House was built as the new home for the Williams College president, just one year after the school was established.

Today, Kellogg House is the home of a $5.2 million experiment in both learning and sustainable construction: Once the Kellogg House is complete, designers hope it will produce at least as much electricity as it uses, and that it will only use the falling rain for all its water needs.

Just as important are the construction practices and materials used in renovating and adding to the original structure.

“It’s an experiment in some ways to see if we can do it,” said David Dethier, Williams College professor of geology and mineralogy and chairman of the Kellogg project building committee. “It’s a building designed to achieve total neutrality in its affect on the environment.”

More than a year after completion — which could be as early as this fall — officials are hoping it will qualify as a Living Building Challenge project by the International Living Future Institute.

Through the use of the latest in insulation tactics, photovoltaic solar panels, mulching toilets, a 6,000 gallon water collection tank, and a complex rain water retention and water filtration system, the operation of the facility should not require water from the town supply, nor use of the town sewer system, and will hopefully produce more power than it needs. Any surplus power would feed into the public utility grid. From the exterior of Kellogg House, some of the orinal wood used in its construction in 1794 can still be seen. Wednesday, April 9, 2014 (Scott Stafford/Berkshire Eagle Staff) (Stafford)

The real challenge, Dethier noted, is installing these 21st century technologies into a structure that was built with wooden planks and spike nails 220 years ago.

“It’s a philosophy being put into practice,” he said. “If done right, the building will behave as a part of the ecosystem.”

To qualify for the Living Building Challenge (LBC), in addition to net zero use of electricity and water, the plan has to include environmental restoration of the project site to minimize its impact on the local habitat. The project also needs to use materials that are nontoxic — both as part of the structure and in their manufacture — and procured from sources as close to the project as possible.

via Williams College’s Kellogg House becomes a $5.2M experiment in sustainability – Berkshire Eagle Online.

How Beloved Chef and Entrepreneur Julia Child Conquered the World: An Illustrated Life Story, Brain Pickings: Love this! Legendary chef Julia Child, who would have been 101 today, not only revolutionized the world of cookbooks but was also a remarkable beacon of entrepreneurship and perseverance more than a decade before women started raising their voices in the media world. Her unrelenting spirit and generous heart cast her as one of modern history’s most timeless role models, and that’s precisely what writer and illustrator Jessie Hartland celebrates in the endlessly wonderful Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child (public library) — a heartening illustrated biography of the beloved chef, intended to enchant young readers with her story but certain to delight all of us. Hartland’s vibrant drawings — somewhere between Maira Kalman, Wendy MacNaughton, and Vladimir Radunsky — exude the very charisma that made Childs an icon, and infuse her legacy with fresh joy.

via How Beloved Chef and Entrepreneur Julia Child Conquered the World: An Illustrated Life Story | Brain Pickings.

Backlog … The Panda Cam Is Back!, @ TeamCoco.com:  Again, an old one …

CONAN Highlight: The government is back in business and the Panda Cam has returned. Uh, better cue the “panda.”


via ▶ The Panda Cam Is Back! @ TeamCoco.com.

Podcast: The Unwritten Jersey Rules, The Daily Fix – WSJ:  I cannot imagine doing this … from October. When Peyton Manning returned to Indianapolis on Sunday night, Colts fans showed up in force wearing the jersey of their former quarterback. Geoff Foster explains why he had a problem with that and explains his unwritten rules on wearing a jersey of a player no longer on your favorite team.

via Podcast: The Unwritten Jersey Rules – The Daily Fix – WSJ..

baseball, national sport:  I must admit I am a fair weather friend of football.  I love baseball season so much more.  So  I found this post from FB October … What do you think?  Is baseball a national or a regional sport?

During the television broadcast of the Panthers game on Sunday, one of the commentators noted that no one was talking about baseball despite the fact that the playoffs were ongoing. Why? Because baseball is not a national sport. It\’s fans are only regional. He contrasted that with NFL teams which have a national fan base. Any thoughts?

Maybe regional/national are wrong. I think the comment was more focused on once your team was out, many fans in baseball drop out of watching playoff games and even the World Series.

Best thing about the panthers today was that the pink looked nice with the shade of blue in their uniforms.

Does anybody like the Dodgers?

And I continue to ask my last question …

‘Artisanal’ Toast, The Salt : NPR: The TIY Verdict

via Worth sticking with one airline? | Atlanta Forward.

Cloud Photo Storage, Family Pictures, WSJ.com:

Survivalist Seder, Passover, go bags: Loved this!

via George F. Kennan’s Diaries, Reviewed | New Republic.

Indy churches,  share spirit — and their space:

via Indy churches share spirit — and their space.

Veriditas, labyrinths, history:

via Veriditas – About the Labyrinth.

Mt Everest Avalanche: 

via Miniversion of Wrigley a hit in Freeport – chicagotribune.com.

Chicken Thigh Recipes,  Bon Appétit:  Favorite piece of chicken … Chicken Thigh Recipes Slideshow

via Chicken Thigh Recipes Slideshow – Bon Appétit.


4.17.14 … ” ‘Homeless Jesus’ has no place in our [upscale] neighborhood” … every life has equal value …

Tags: "Homeless Jesus", 000, 14ers, ads, bckcountry skiing, beauty, Bill Gates, Brain Pickings, Breckenridge CO, DavidsonNews.net, Denise Dunning, Einstein on Why We Are Alive, Ending Global Poverty Starts With 600 Million Adolescent Girls, free-to-use electric cycle taxis, interracial relationships, KBXX 97.9 The Box's photo, kith/kin, Le Petit Rue Cler, living large, Melinda Gates, National Geographic, neighborhood, Paris restaurant, Paris' Saint-Chapelle. traveling friends, philanthropy, PolicyMic, Quandary Peak, Rue Cler Neighborhood Paris, South Africa, Springwise, St. Alban’s Square, St. Louis House $16, The Making of the Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation, Twitter find, What Americans Will Look Like in 2050, Zillow

‘Homeless Jesus’, neighborhood, DavidsonNews.net, St. Alban’s Square:  I written about this Timothy Schmalz’s work before.  But last weekend it got national attention when it was featured on NPR.  Several Davidson locals posted a February local internet paper article about the reaction of the locals in the paper.  What followed was an interesting discourse on my FB page.  I think you need a little context.  St. Albans Square Neighborhood is small new neighborhood build on the edge of  a small college town but considers it “Old Davidson”.  When it was built, the local Episcopal church built at its center a traditional small town but upscale parish church, moving from what had been a nondescript parish church closer to the center of the town on a residential street. The original church had no physical presence and now it anchors a new but traditional neighborhood.  There is a mix of suburban sprawl and farmland just beyond this community.  There is nothing gritty or urban about it.  So I ask you, humble readers, how would you feel if this was your neighborhood? Artist Timothy Schmalz’s work is in front of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Davidson.

(David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

To the editor:

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church has placed a sculpture at the entrance to our neighborhood that I think is entirely inappropriate for our neighborhood.

My complaint is not about the art-worthiness or the meaning behind the sculpture. It is about people driving into our beautiful, reasonably upscale neighborhood and seeing an ugly homeless person sleeping on a park bench. It is also about walking by this sculpture at night and passing within inches of the grim reaper. These are the impressions that this sculpture gives. I have stepped over actual homeless people sleeping on a sidewalk in New York City and not been as creeped out as I am walking past this sculpture.

If I had submitted this sculpture to our architectural committee to place in front of my house, would it have been approved? Why, then, should we accept this at the entrance of our neighborhood?

In my opinion, the church had no business putting this obviously controversial sculpture out for display to our neighborhood. If they want to display it to their own congregation, then they can relocate it farther in on their property, facing their own internal sidewalk, instead of facing ours.


Resident of St. Alban’s Square

via ‘Homeless Jesus’ has no place in our neighborhood | DavidsonNews.net.

My Facebook friends responded …

Jerry Dawson doesn’t like the new “Homeless Jesus” sculpture…

It saddens me that Mr. Dawson describes this as a statue of an “Ugly homeless person”. You can’t see the statue’s face. In fact, the only part of the statue’s body that is visible is the feet. The nail holes there are the only giveaway to the statue’s identity. To call this statue “ugly” says more, to me, about the attitude of the author toward the homeless than it does about the statue.

Actually, I would be pleased … to have the reminder of him, who told his followers to minister to ‘the least of these.’

Looks like the sculpture is doing precisely what it was probably designed to do.

So glad this conversation is in the open.

My response is that I can respect Mr. Dawson’s opinion, but I would be proud to have this in my neighborhood as a Christian.  I would love to have it at my downtown Charlotte urban missional Church, but then it would not be nearly so out-of-place.  And that juxtaposition is what makes the sculpture so powerful at St. Alban’s.

But I would embrace the statue right where it is in the Davidson neighborhood.  I would love to take my friends to see it on an evening stroll because it would open up lots of interesting conversation, and I would love to take children to see it because it would introduce them to Jesus beyond Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny,  beyond the softened Jesus of Sunday School and “Jesus loves me this I know,” and  beyond urban and international mission trips (with a side adventure to a theme park or a Mexican resort.)  But I also feel strongly that Mr. Dawson’s feelings should be respected.  And that if there is a place closer to the church proper then possibly it should be moved there out of respect for those in the community.

Paris’ Saint-Chapelle. traveling friends:

E. posted this great pic of an “open” stained glass window yesterday. It was in Paris’ Saint-Chapelle where they were cleaning every piece of stained glass individually.  I just love the irony of the image. I also love vicariously experiencing the travels of my friends. Thanks for sharing and enjoy your trip with your daughter!!   Godspeed!

And her pic sent me down memory lane …  Rue Cler:  good simple Gallic grub (Definitely not a B- in my opinion) … Amorino gelato …

Two of France’s great cheese shops, La Fromagerie and Marie-Anne Cantin (around the corner on Rue du Champs de Mars) are also located here, as are various restaurants, including the popular Tribeca and Café Central.  You can buy wine at Nicolas, or buy specialty epicerie items (including tea, spices, top quality jarred tuna, olive oils and vinegars, etc.) at L’Epicerie Fine (also around the corner on Rue du Champs de Mars).  Finally, if you want dessert there is a terrific gelato place with fruit, chocolate and other rich gelati at Amorino.

via Rue Cler Neighborhood | Best Restaurants in Paris | Le Best of Paris.

Melinda Gates, Bill Gates, philanthropy:

via Bill and Melinda Gates: Why giving away our wealth has been the most satisfying thing we’ve done… – YouTube.

In 1993, Bill and Melinda Gates took a walk on the beach and made a big decision: to give their Microsoft wealth back to society. In conversation with Chris Anderson, the couple talks about their work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as their marriage, their children, their failures and the satisfaction of giving most of their money away.

via Bill and Melinda Gates: Why giving away our wealth has been the most satisfying thing we’ve done | Talk Video | TED.com.


Melinda French Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she puts into practice the idea that every life has equal value.

Bill Gates: My 13 favorite talks | Playlist, TED.com: I have only seen a few of his favorites.

Susan Cain

The power of introverts

via Bill Gates: My 13 favorite talks | Playlist | TED.com.

South Africa, free-to-use electric cycle taxis,  ads, Springwise:  Next time I go, I will seek them out!! In big cities, congested roads mean that public transport is the predominant mode of travel and if residents need to take a car, it’s usually a taxi. The Netherlands’ Hopper has already explored the possibility of eco taxi travel with its one-person electric scooters, and now Mellowcabs is enabling South African citizens to travel for free in its electric cycle cabs that are funded by advertising.

The vehicles have been designed to achieve three goals: free and effective public transport, provide much sought-after advertising hoardings for marketers, and also cut carbon emissions. Each taxi holds up to two passengers and a driver, and customers don’t have to pay to use them. Mellowcabs travel around 120 km a day and have high visibility, including bright white and yellow coverings, meaning they’re both easy for customers to spot and provide a visual platform for advertisers. Each cab also has an on-board tablet providing further advertising opportunities, as well as entertainment for passengers. Since the taxis use electric pedaling, they’re already one of the most eco-friendly vehicles on the road, but they also take advantage of regenerative braking, which stores energy typically lost when braking and converts it into electricity to power the cab. Enough energy is produced by the cycling that passengers can also charge their phones while they use Mellowcabs.

Could this concept be picked up in your city?

via In South Africa, free-to-use electric cycle taxis are paid for by ads | Springwise.

National Geographic,  interracial relationships, What Americans Will Look Like in 2050, Beauty, PolicyMic:

It’s no secret that interracial relationships are trending upward, and in a matter of years we’ll have Tindered, OKCupid-ed and otherwise sexed ourselves into one giant amalgamated mega-race.

But what will we look like? National Geographic built its 125th anniversary issue around this very question last October, commissioning Martin Schoeller, a renowned photographer and portrait artist, to capture the lovely faces of our nation’s multiracial future.

Here’s how the “average American” will look by the year 2050: via National Geographic Concludes What Americans Will Look Like in 2050, and It’s Beautiful – PolicyMic.

Twitter find, St. Louis House $16,000: Sarah Kendzior ‏@sarahkendzior 8m

Six-bedroom home that has belonged to the same St. Louis family since 1906 now selling for $16,000 http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2707-Blair-Ave-Saint-Louis-MO-63106/2936445_zpid/ …

via (4) Twitter


2707 Blair Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63106



Bird’s Eye

Street View


For Sale: $16,000

Zestimate®: $19,540

Est. Mortgage:


See current rates on Zillow

Bedrooms:6 beds

Bathrooms:3 baths

Single Family:2,538 sq ft

Lot:3,920 sqft

Year Built:1908

Heating Type:

via 2707 Blair Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63106 is For Sale – Zillow.

Einstein on Why We Are Alive, Brain Pickings:

via 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do.

The Making of the Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation:  I loved this from a while back … shows you how our electronic oversimplification can be destructive.

How many times have you heard or muttered that? How many of of us have been frustrated at seeing too many presentations where PowerPoint or other visual aids obscure rather than enhance the point? After one too many bad presentations at a meeting in January 2000, I decided to see if I could do something about it.

via The Making of the Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation. Speaker Notes

[Transcribed from voice recording by A. Lincoln, 11/18/63]

These are some notes on the Gettysburg meeting. I\’ll whip them into better shape when I can get on to my computer.

via Summary.

Ending Global Poverty Starts With 600 Million Adolescent Girls, Denise Dunning:

Globally, 600 million adolescent girls struggle with widespread poverty, limited access to education and health services, and persistent discrimination and violence. Adolescent girls are among the world’s most economically vulnerable groups, significantly more so than adult women or adolescent boys.

The Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy & Leadership Initiative (AGALI) of the Public Health Institute recently launched a global report that explores the factors that influence girls’ economic empowerment, analyzing promising strategies and highlighting recommendations for policymakers, funders and practitioners.

The Adolescent Girls’ Economic Empowerment Report demonstrates that economic empowerment initiatives can be a critical lever for change in adolescent girls’ lives, helping them to gain financial independence, establish good saving habits and improve their future prospects for participation in the labor force.


AGALI’s research identifies six principal factors that contribute to adolescent girls’ economic empowerment. The first is financial capital … Another is human capital, or a girl’s skills and attributes… A third key factor is social capital …

The fourth key element is physical capital, or the goods that make income generation possible. … Beyond a girl’s individual assets, community-level social norms and institutions can create challenges or opportunities for girls’ economic empowerment. Social norms include cultural beliefs regarding early marriage and childbearing, female genital cutting, and other traditional practices relating to girls’ age, gender or ethnicity. Influential institutions include the legal and policy frameworks that protect girls from violence and exploitation, the macroeconomic market structure, and national education and healthcare systems.

AGALI’s report highlights the importance of addressing the different needs and capacities of adolescent girls of varying ages. While adolescent girls around the world share many of the same challenges, a 12-year-old girl is drastically different from her 17-year-old sister. To that end, economic empowerment initiatives must tailor strategies to respond to the differing realities of girls across a range of age brackets, cultural contexts and political frameworks….

Although adolescent girls primarily enter the workforce to support their families financially, studies have shown that girls also value the increased mobility, opportunities for friendship and greater autonomy that may come with employment. Therefore, safe and appropriate employment opportunities can strengthen adolescent girls’ economic status, while improving their social welfare and future labor market prospects.

via Ending Global Poverty Starts With 600 Million Adolescent Girls | Denise Dunning.

KBXX 97.9 The Box’s photo: I wasn’t expecting this one! living large, kith/kin, 14ers, bckcountry skiing, Breckenridge CO, Quandary Peak: On my first’s recent birthday, I woke up with a smile on my face.  He was packing in and skiing down from Quandary Peak … And I thought: what a way to celebrate 24. Live large, my son!  Unfortunately, living large had to be rescheduled. “We are saving it for next week because of avalanche danger. “. I guess that is life.

Summit, Vail and Holy Cross, Quandary Peak Sky Terrain Topographic Recreation Map Summit, Vail and Holy Cross, Quandary Peak Sky Terrain Topographic Recreation Map.

Tags: 'The Sober Truth', 101 Things I Will Teach My Daughters, 2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah, Billion Buffett Perfect NCAA Bracket, Brain Pickings, Charlotte Latin, Charlotte native, Charlotte NC, Donna Leon, Easter eggs, easter tree, first world problems, Fred Rogers, fun food, G7/G8, Girl Scout Cookies, Goethe, Gus Mayopoulos, Gustav Klimt, Harvard’s student council, Lance Dodes, Machu Picchu, March 20, March Madness, MLB Memes, Modern Art Desserts UK-based, mystery series, Naked Tourists, News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com, NPR, Psychology of Color and Emotion, public art, Purim, Purim Carnival 2014, Putin, quotes, The Week, The week's best photojournalism, The week's best photojournalism - The Week, Thin Mints, Thought Catalog, Ukraine/Crimea invasion, Venice, Wall Poems, Wilmette Life

Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah, Purim Carnival 2014, Wilmette Life: When I lived in Wilmette, a Jewish high school student came and taught Sunday School to elementary age students at our Presbyterian church. He taught on Purim.  It was a very fun day in Sunday School.

Explaining the costumes, games and obstacle courses of Purim Carnival 2014, Rabbi Michael Cohen described the celebration as “the Jewish version of Mardi Gras.”


“We’ve got all these kids dressing up, enjoying themselves, having a good time, it’s a wonderful thing,” said Cohen. “It fills up my heart with joy.”

Purim’s festive tone celebrates the events chronicled in the “Megillat Esther.”

Congregants typically read from the Biblical “Scroll of Esther,” which tells of a villain named Haman who tried to convince the king to kill the Jewish people. Fortunately, a noblewoman named Esther spoke up to save the day.

via Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah Purim Carnival 2014 | Wilmette Life.

Purim, The week’s best photojournalism – The Week: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men wearing costumes celebrate the holiday of Purim in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
via The week’s best photojournalism – The Week.

Modern Art Desserts UK-based, Gustav Klimt: Fun food! After I wrote about Modern Art Desserts, UK-based Hungarian reader Gabriella Szucs sent me this photo of a brilliant Klimt cake she baked for a cupcake competition in Northampton.

More edible homages to modern art here.

via Explore – After I wrote about Modern Art Desserts, UK-based….

101 Things I Will Teach My Daughters, Thought Catalog:  Loved this!

28. Classy is a relative term.

29. Drink whiskey if you like whiskey.

30. Drink wine if you like wine.

31. Like what you like.

via 101 Things I Will Teach My Daughters | Thought Catalog.

Gus Mayopoulos, Charlotte native, Harvard’s student council: Charlotte Latin graduate Gus Mayopoulos got elected president of the undergraduate council, sort of like the student council, at Harvard … and it all started out as a joke. And while that may not sound all that funny – Mayopoulos, 21, the son of Amy Lefkof and Fannie Mae president Tim Mayopoulos, is the kind of well-educated young person who could be expected to hit a high bar for achievement. Still, how it happened is, actually, pretty funny.

First, it wasn’t supposed to happen at all. Mayopoulos ran as vice president on a two-man ticket with his roommate, Sam Clark. Their platform was a joke: A promise to get two-ply toilet paper in the dorms and more tomato basil ravioli soup in the campus dining halls.

“We were irreverent and we were making it distinctly not serious,” admits Mayopoulos, a junior who was home in Charlotte last week on spring break.

Goofing on serious things, he says, is Harvard tradition. After all, the Cambridge, Mass., school is the home of the Harvard Lampoon, and Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Mayopoulos writes for the campus publication Satire V (it spells “veritas” backward) and performs with a comedy troupe, On Thin Ice.

Clark and Mayopoulos, however, ran a well-organized joke campaign, even joining in a public debate.

Then the funny thing started to happen: Their campaign attracted support. It began to look like they might, improbably, win. So they talked it over and decided that if elected, they wouldn’t serve.

“ ‘We started it as a joke and we should end it as a joke,’ ” Mayopoulos says they agreed.

So what happened? They got elected. Clark stepped down. And Gus … well, Gus didn’t.

via Charlotte’s Gus Mayopoulos leads Harvard’s student council | CharlotteObserver.com.

Wall Poems, public art, Charlotte NC:  I noticed this “wall poem” today for the first time.   One thing I love about Charlotte is its public art.  This poem  by A.R. Ammons on the Dandelion Deli is the first of a series and was installed in 2013.  There are now two.  I wonder what poem will pop up next? The first wall poem, completed April 2013

via The Wall Poems of Charlotte – Home.


“The necessity for poetry is one of the most fundamental traits of the human race.”

– Amy Lowell


The Wall Poems of Charlotte are murals that bring poetry to the people, all of whom deserve access to it and to whom it belongs.

The project celebrates NC’s literary heritage: All poems are by North Carolina writers. And it heralds the creative career programs at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), whose Advertising + Graphic Design students design the murals.

Over time, the wall poems will make up a walking tour based on the Leiden Walls in Holland, where 101 poems large and small grace city buildings for residents and tourists to discover and enjoy.

via About – The Wall Poems of Charlotte.

G7/G8, Putin, Ukraine/Crimea invasion:

The leaders are trying to isolate Russia politically and economically, but the suspension also aimed to bruise Putin’s ago. He cares about Russia’s prestige and standing on the world stage, administration officials said, so his exclusion from the group should sting.

via G-7 countries to skip Russian summit – Carrie Budoff Brown – POLITICO.com.

Goethe, Psychology of Color and Emotion, Brain Pickings: One of Goethe’s most radical points was a refutation of Newton’s ideas about the color spectrum, suggesting instead that darkness is an active ingredient rather than the mere passive absence of light.

…light and darkness, brightness and obscurity, or if a more general expression is preferred, light and its absence, are necessary to the production of colour… Colour itself is a degree of darkness.

But perhaps his most fascinating theories explore the psychological impact of different colors on mood and emotion — ideas derived by the poet’s intuition, which are part entertaining accounts bordering on superstition, part

prescient insights corroborated by hard science some two centuries later, and part purely

via Goethe on the Psychology of Color and Emotion | Brain Pickings.

recipes, artichokes: 11 Recipes for Artichokes, Both Fresh and Jarred

Naked Tourists,  Machu Picchu, News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com: First naked yoga … Now naked pilgrims! Peruvian officials are cracking down on naked tourism at Machu Picchu after three separate incidents this month. Four Americans were detained for stripping down and taking photos on March 14, and similar incidents occurred with both Canadian and Australian tourists earlier this month.
“There are places in the world that people can get naked, but not all places are for getting undressed,” Alfredo Atayupanqui, the director of archaeological resources for Peru’s Ministry of Culture, told CNN.
An Israeli man has taken naked tourism to new heights by creating a website called My Naked Trip, in which he shares his naked photos from around the world, including his visit to Machu Picchu.
In Peru, officials are not amused by the rise of nudity at the country’s premiere travel destination. Regulations are expected to tighten, according to the Peruvian Times.
via Naked Tourists Hit Machu Picchu | News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com.

2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Billion Buffett Perfect NCAA Bracket, March Madness: Did anyone think that no entry would survive the first (actually) second) round?

via Billion Buffett Perfect NCAA Bracket: These 6 Entries Left | SportsGrid.

MLB Memes: March 21
How we ALL feel about our brackets right about now
from @rileybreck — with Terry Williams.

Girl Scout Cookies, Thin Mints, first world problems: It makes my life all the more difficult that thin mints freeze perfectly and taste even better frozen. So just when you least need them, they are there waiting in the perfect state. #firstworldproblems

easter eggs, easter tree, The week’s best photojournalism, The Week: German pensioner Volker Kraft adds Easter eggs to his apple tree in the eastern German town of Saalfeld. Each year since 1965, Volker and his wife Christa have spent up to two weeks decorating the tree with their collection of 10,000 hand-painted eggs. (REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)

Lance Dodes,  ‘The Sober Truth’, NPR:

Since its founding in the 1930s, Alcoholics Anonymous has become part of the fabric of American society. AA and the many 12-step groups it inspired have become the country’s go-to solution for addiction in all of its forms. These recovery programs are mandated by drug courts, prescribed by doctors and widely praised by reformed addicts.

Dr. Lance Dodes sees a big problem with that. The psychiatrist has spent more than 20 years studying and treating addiction. His latest book on the subject is The Sober Truth: Debunking The Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs And The Rehab Industry.

Dodes tells NPR’s Arun Rath that 12-step recovery simply doesn’t work, despite anecdotes about success.

“We hear from the people who do well; we don’t hear from the people who don’t do well,” he says.

via Author Interview: Lance Dodes, Author Of ‘The Sober Truth’ : NPR.

Fred Rogers, quotes, March 20: The Neighborhood is such a great place. And the sweater, just love the sweater. “Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” – Fred Rogers, born on this day in 1928.

Donna Leon, mystery series, Venice: I  just got a recommendation for this author from one of my mom’s friends at Lenbrook. Her mysteries are set in Venice. Any one read her books? The official site for author Donna Leon.


3.17.14 … Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!) … Sláinte!!

Tags: 100 Diagrams That Changed the World, 2014 NCAA bracket, 3.13 Davidson's "birthday", A Lesson From Elizabeth Bennet, ‘Superstar’ of Republican party, best travel apps, Brain Pickings, Chartres Cathedral, crazy people, Darling Magazine, Davidson Basketball, Easter Dances by the clergy, Elizabeth Bennet, Flexibility, Green Renaissance, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church | The Second Sunday in Lent (March 16), How the Irish Saved Civilization, How To Pronounce Slainte - YouTube, Howard “Bo” Callaway, Jane Austen, kith/kin: RIP Bo Calloway, Lenten Devotions, lists, Making Your Device Your Best Travel Companion, March Madness, MH 370, Monet, NCAA Basketball, NIT, NPR, Panchita (a Galapagos sea lion), Pat’s Backcountry Beverages Covet | OutsideOnline.com, process and bracket structure, RIP, Selection Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, St. Patrick's Day memes, Stanford’s newest majors marry computer science and the humanities, The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY College, van Gogh, visual artist, www.ajc.com

St. Patrick’s Day, How To Pronounce Slainte – YouTube, St. Patrick’s Day memes, How the Irish Saved Civilization: Now I know why I’ve been craving mint patties … The Dublin Airport Facebook page posted this notice clarifying that it’s “Saint Paddy’s Day,” not “Saint Patty’s Day.” (DublinAirport/Facebook)

Here’s a PSA from the Dublin Airport: Don’t call it St. Patty’s Day. Also, March 17 should never be referred to as Patty’s Day either.

You may, however, call it St. Paddy’s Day, or Paddy’s Day. Also acceptable are the traditional St. Patrick’s Day and Patrick’s Day.

Got that?

In a fogra (notice, in Gaelic) posted to its Facebook page, the airport addressed what is apparently a pet peeve: the improper use of St. Patty’s Day in the United States and Canada.

“Please share this simple message with your friends and relations in the United States and Canada,” the fogra reads. “Using the power of your network, hopefully we can banish the scourge of St Patty once and for all.”

So what’s the problem with St. Patty’s Day?

Patty is a nickname for Patricia, a woman’s name, according to the website paddynotpatty.com. St. Patrick was, of course, a man.

Paddy is appropriate because it comes from Padraig, a variant of the name Patrick.

But if you really want to impress an Irishman, you need only say: Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!).

via Please Don’t Call It St. Patty’s Day | ABC News – Yahoo.

via How To Pronounce Slainte – YouTube. Not withstanding our earlier (March 15) serious discussion of St. Patrick, this is just too good to ignore!

via The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. An intro to St. Patrick from one of my favorite books: Like many another in impossible circumstances, he began to pray. He had never before paid attention to the teachings of his religion; he tells us that he didn’t really believe in God, and he found priests foolish. But now, there was no one to turn to but the God of his parents. One is reminded of the reports of contemporary hostages about how they make it through the dreary years of captivity. “Tending flocks was my daily work, and I would pray constantly during the daylight hours. The love of God and the fear of him surrounded me more and more—and faith grew and the Spirit was roused, so that in one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers and after dark nearly as many again, even while I remained in the woods or on the mountain. I would wake and pray before daybreak—through snow, frost, rain—nor was there any sluggishness in me (such as I experience nowadays) because then the Spirit within me was ardent.”

Patricius endured six years of this woeful isolation, and by the end of it he had grown from a careless boy to something he would surely never otherwise have become—a holy man, indeed a visionary for whom there was no longer any rigid separation between this world and the next. On his last night as Miliucc’s slave, he received in sleep his first otherworldly experience. A mysterious voice said to him: “Your hungers are rewarded: you are going home.” Patricius sat up, startled. The voice continued: “Look, your ship is ready.”

Cahill, Thomas (2010-04-28). How the Irish Saved Civilization (Kindle Locations 1304-1316). Anchor. Kindle Edition.

via Dennard Lindsey Teague.

“They understood, as few have understood before or since, how fleeting life is and how pointless to try to hold on to things or people. They pursued the wondrous deed, the heroic gesture…poetry for intense emotion, the music that accompanied the heroic drinking with which each day ended, bewitching ornament for one’s person and possessions.”

― Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization

Selection Sunday, process and bracket structure, NCAA Basketball, March Madness, NIT, Davidson basketball:

An overview of how teams are selected and seeded in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, and a look into bracket methodology.

via Selection process and bracket structure – Associated Press Interactive.

2014 NCAA bracket: Use Slate’s interactive to make your picks based on the odds, SAT scores, coach’s salary, and a whole lot more. I may try dog lovers.  According to the interactive, Connecticut wins. And then again, Wofford has a dog mascot, a terrier,  and they got the SoCon’s automatic bid.  So maybe not. Want to pick an NCAA bracket but have no idea where to start? No worries—use our interactive March Madness bracket-filler. We can pick the winners based on who’s the odds-on favorite, or we can serve up a bracket full of underdogs. Want to go with whoever has a dog mascot, or a cat, or a bird? We can help. What about picking by SAT scores? We’ve got you covered. The first-round games start on Tuesday, but most bracket contests give you until Thursday morning to submit your picks. Now, get to clicking!

I really don’t like the NIT. What is the point …

Davidson Athletics @DavidsonWildcat 1m

No. 7 seed @DavidsonMBB will play at No. 2 seed Missouri on Tuesday on @ESPN2 in the 1st round of the NIT Tournament

Pat’s Backcountry Beverages Covet | OutsideOnline.com: I neither drink beer nor camp … so that is just interesting to me. So I guess the question, “After all, who among us hasn’t fantasized about some sweet suds at the end of a long, hot hike? ” doesn’t apply to me. We’ve written about Pat’s Backcountry Beverages Carbonator, the Nalgene-size system for fizzifying your drink of choice where ever the trail takes you. And while we’ve talked about Pat’s alcohol-packed beer flavors—the world’s first beer concentrate, according to the company—we haven’t put them to the test. Until now.

As a backpacker and a booze writer, when I heard about Pat’s first two beer flavors (complete with alcohol!) I couldn’t resist checking them out. After all, who among us hasn’t fantasized about some sweet suds at the end of a long, hot hike? But could these “beers” pass the taste test of an admittedly picky beer drinker? The short answer—Yes.

For those unfamiliar with the idea, Pat’s Backcountry Beverages Carbonator is a plastic bottle with built-in levers, valves, and cups. You add a mixture of potassium bicarbonate and citric acid to the small charging cup within the bottle, pull a lever on the cap a few times to add water, and a chemical reaction starts, releasing CO2 into your beverage of choice. In this case, your beverage of choice would be beer.

Pat’s offers two flavors: Pale Rail and Black Hops. They both come in portable, 1.7-ounce liquid packets that you add to the water before you charge it. These packets are sold in four-packs for $10 a pop, which isn’t too outrageous compared to your standard micro-brew.

It’s worth noting that these aren’t merely “beer flavored.” Founder Pat Tatera developed what he calls a “Hybrid Brewing Process.” The beer begins as a normal beer would, except once it’s done fermenting, he vacuum-distills it. This pulls out most of the water and the alcohol, which Tatera sets aside, leaving a beer-like syrup. Then he restarts the brewing process, but instead of using water to create the wort, he uses the beer syrup. He repeats these steps four times, then soaks Cascade Hops in the reserved alcohol to extract their flavor, and combines that with the syrup. The result? A little packet of concentrated beer. Just add fizzy water.

I went through the process exactly as I would if I were in the field, using cold, bottled water to simulate filtered water from a stream. Despite Pat’s claim that it’s just three steps, there are several steps within each step, and you’d be hard-pressed to remember them all if you didn’t bring the instructions. It takes approximately five minutes to brew each beer. Here’s how they measure up to the real thing.

via Pat’s Backcountry Beverages | Covet | OutsideOnline.com.

The Wall Street Journal, MH 370: Curiouser and curiouser! Police have intensified their investigation of the pilots of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 amid suspicion that foul play was involved in the jet’s disappearance. http://on.wsj.com/OuBZ2i

Follow our streaming coverage here: http://on.wsj.com/1n4l1Yj

100 Diagrams That Changed the World, Brain Pickings: 100 Diagrams That Changed the World (UK; public library) by investigative journalist and documentarian Scott Christianson chronicles the history of our evolving understanding of the world through humanity’s most groundbreaking sketches, illustrations, and drawings, ranging from cave paintings to The Rosetta Stone to Moses Harris’s color wheel to Tim Berners-Lee’s flowchart for a “mesh” information management system, the original blueprint for the world wide web.

But most noteworthy of all is the way in which these diagrams bespeak an essential part of culture — the awareness that everything builds on what came before, that creativity is combinatorial, and that the most radical innovations harness the cross-pollination of disciplines. Christianson writes in the introduction:

It appears that no great diagram is solely authored by its creator. Most of those described here were the culmination of centuries of accumulated knowledge. Most arose from collaboration (and oftentimes in competition) with others. Each was a product and a reflection of its unique cultural, historical and political environment. Each represented specific preoccupations, interests, and stake holders.


via 100 Diagrams That Changed the World | Brain Pickings.

Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennet, A Lesson From Elizabeth Bennet, Darling Magazine:  A new magazine.  🙂

Truth is not always that which the majority believes it to be; it is often disguised as myths found in the popular trends of social normality, myths that a girl like Elizabeth Bennet is able to debunk. Elizabeth is, in essence, a modern woman well before her time. She is able to see past the delicacies and deceits of corseted ball gowns, budding romances, and pretentious suitors, all of which make the young women around her swoon with anticipation.

The simplicities of the female lifestyle do not satisfy Elizabeth’s longing for a life of purpose and meaning for the mere reason that she, unlike her sisters, is unwilling to exchange her desire for truth with a fleeting happiness inspired by a gentleman’s passing fancies. She refuses to take the hand of a man for whom she feels anything but wholehearted love, and instead she chooses to sleep soundly with a well-deserved pride in her nonconformity.

via A Lesson From Elizabeth Bennet | Darling Magazine.

best travel apps, lists, Making Your Device Your Best Travel Companion, NPR:







google maps

Roam to Rio


via Making Your Device Your Best Travel Companion : NPR.

RIP, Howard “Bo” Callaway, ‘Superstar’ of Republican party, http://www.ajc.com, kith/kin: RIP Bo Calloway: I will never forget him. We got a dog in 1966 and named him Bo for Bo Calloway. That is my first memory of an election. I was 6. He lived until 1981 and I was 21.  It was a good name for a dog.

In the 1960s, when nearly every elected Georgia Republican could fit in a Studabaker, Howard “Bo” Callaway was the party’s driver.

By 2010, when the GOP swept every statewide office for the first time, Callaway’s name was spoken with reverence, as the father of the Georgia Republican Party and its first superstar.

Callaway, 86, who helped his parents create the Callaway Gardens resort near Pine Mountain, died Saturday, nearly two years after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

His death marks the end of an era that saw him become, in 1964, the state’s first Republican congressman since Reconstruction, and almost the first Republican governor two years later. And while he never returned to elected office, veteran Georgia Republicans say he never stopped working to grow the party.

via Howard “Bo” Callaway: ‘Superstar’ of Republican party | www.ajc.com.

Monet, van Gogh, visual artist, crazy people: Artists like Monet and van Gogh saw the world in a way that was once rejected as crazy. But their work came to be prized in every meaning of that word. This Monet masterpiece is called “Parliament in London,” part of the priceless collection at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

You may not be a visual artist. But if you’re one of those “crazy” people who sees hopeful possibilities in a world that others claim is going to hell in a handbasket, don’t let the cynics do eye surgery on you!

You won’t become as famous as Monet, but you’ll achieve something equally important. You’ll open other people’s eyes to the daily opportunities we all have to help make this world a more life-giving place for all concerned.

via Facebook.

3.13 Davidson’s “birthday”: A Facebook birthday!

Happy Birthday, Davidson! Today is the perfect day to make your gift to Davidson. You only turn 177 once, after all. – http://bit.ly/1kD4AjY Flexibility, Lenten Devotions:

Sunday March 16, 2014

The Virtue of Flexibility

Green Renaissance, Panchita (a Galapagos sea lion) :  Panchita, now pregnant and expecting her baby sea lion,  goes out to sea every day and then returns to the hotel to rest. … as good as a good dog story!

March 13 This is Panchita, a Galapagos sea lion. Panchita was caught up in a net, which left deep cuts all over her body. She managed to make it to this hotel where animal advocates nursed her back to health for 3 months.

Panchita, now pregnant and expecting her baby sea lion any day, goes out to sea every day and then returns to the hotel to rest.

Be kind to Nature.

Source – https://www.facebook.com/giveashitaboutnature

Chartres Cathedral, Easter Dances by the clergy, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church | The Second Sunday in Lent (March 16):  Just loved this devotional post.  And now I must research Chartres Cathedral Easter Dances by the clergy! Martha Sterne on Mar 16, 2014 9:13am

Sundays are “Feast and Fill in Your Own Quote” days on our Lenten Journey. What comes to you through this image? This I just learned – the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral, created in the early thirteenth century, was the scene of Easter Dances by the clergy! Photo is by an anonymous internet pilgrim.

Helen A on Mar 16, 2014 1:24pm

I would love to see that dance!

via Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church | The Second Sunday in Lent (March 16).

Stanford’s newest majors marry computer science and the humanities,  USA TODAY College:

Many students see little noteworthy overlap between course offerings in computer science and in the traditional humanities. However, a new generation of digitally savvy liberal arts scholars believes that technology is changing our understanding of the humanities.

In a growing field known today as the “digital humanities,” professors and students engage in a computer-based study of the liberal arts.

In light of the growing popularity of the field, Stanford University approved two new “joint-majors” on March 6 that will allow students to pursue an interdisciplinary study of English and computer science or music and computer science beginning next academic year, according to a press release by the university.

Unlike double majoring in computer science and a humanities field, students who choose the new CS+X program will not be required to complete all the requirements from both majors, according to the university.

Students will pursue a curriculum integrating coursework from both disciplines and will need to complete a senior project or honors thesis that synthesizes their work from both fields.

via » Stanford’s newest majors marry computer science and the humanities USA TODAY College: College news and information powered by USA TODAY.


10.22.13 … I loved this post on groupons … “Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss, But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.” …

Tags: Advocacy Curriculum, AMA Manual of Style, “Combinatory Play”, Black Friday/Thanksgiving, Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”), Brain Pickings, clutter-clearing myths, college life, cultural v spiritual, Dan Pink, Einstein, Eric Clapton (“Lay Down Sally”), faith, fraternity life, George Washington University, grammatically Incorrect, Groupons, Henry VI, Jewish identity, lay/lie, lists, Malala, Malala Yousafzai, Mental Floss, Miley Cyrus, misogyny, My 5 favorite talks on work, naked pictures, secret of genius, TED, TED Playlists, The Happiness Project, William Faulkner's “As I Lay Dying”, William Shakespeare

groupons, William Shakespeare, Henry VI:  I love a good liberal arts education … closing a discussion of wasted groupons with Shakespeare!

The way he said it made me think he might actually be in cahoots with the cockroaches.  Sort of like Tony Soprano saying, “Hey, bada bing, bada bang!, I’d hate to see you use that other waste removal company and possibly have some sorta accident rolling your trash bin up to Grey Road.”  Aaaargh!


Wise men ne’er sit and wail their loss,

But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.

William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III Act V, scene 4, line 1.

via Leaving money on the table… | 50th Year of Pat Millen.

Malala,  Advocacy Curriculum, George Washington University:  A very impressive young woman!

George Washington University announced Monday that faculty members are creating multimedia curriculum tools to accompany a book recently released by the teen, Malala Yousafzai. Several faculty members will pilot the curriculum early next year for both college and high school instruction. Free of charge, it will focus on themes such as the importance of a woman\’s voice and political extremism, the university said.

The tools won\’t just look at the teen\’s story, but also how the same issues get reflected elsewhere, such as when girls face child marriage and pressures to leave school, said Mary Ellsberg, the director of the university\’s Global Women\’s Institute.

\”It\’s going to be really interactive and really encourage students to do … activities outside of school, it will encourage them to get engaged in the communities and as well to help the Malala Fund directly,\” Ellsberg said.

The university\’s Global Women\’s Institute is partnered with the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that seeks to ensure girls around the world have access to education.

via Malala Inspires Advocacy Curriculum At George Washington University.

college life, fraternity life, naked pictures, misogyny:  Why naked pictures aren’t harmless – Salon.com.

Last week at Swarthmore College a pledge posted a photograph on Instagram of his offer to join a fraternity. The picture was of a booklet cover featuring a mosaic of hundreds of naked or nearly naked women. The website Total Frat Move lamented that it wasn’t deliverd with a note saying, “Enjoy the tits.” The fraternity has used this format for several years — but this year, a group of students led by senior Marian Firke protested the use of the photography. They created an alternative version of the composite image and asked the school to suspend the fraternity’s school-funded party budget.

Swarthmore’s dean of students agreed with protesters and took steps to address their concerns, including requiring members of the fraternity to attend yet-to-be-defined “special training sessions.” The speed with which the administration has responded may have something to do with the fact that the college is one of a growing list of schools, including Occidental, the University of North Carolina, Yale and Dartmouth, involved in very public complaints for their handling (or mishandling) of sexual assault cases. Emerson is the latest school to be investigated by the Department of Education for related Title IX violations. While the administration’s responsiveness is laudable, the truth is that given the scope of the problem at hand, entire swaths of our population need “special training sessions,” and before they even make it to college. What do we do about them?

via Why naked pictures aren’t harmless – Salon.com.

faith, cultural v spiritual, Jewish identity:

All three embrace their Jewish identity — but this isn’t their parents’ Jewishness.

As underscored in a major new survey, they are among those navigating a period of historic flux in how American Jews view themselves, their religion, their culture, and how they affiliate with each other.

A growing minority of American Jews — including nearly a third of younger adults in particular — say they’re not religious but continue to identify themselves as Jewish, according to the survey, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” released this month by the Pew Research Center.

Intermarriage rates also continue at high levels among younger Jews — 58 percent among Jews married this century.

And on the list of things that make someone Jewish, far more Jews chose such things as remembering the Holocaust, being moral and ethical, working for justice and even having a good sense of humor than such traditional markers as belonging to the Jewish community or observing religious law.

via American Jews carve out faith different than parents’ | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com.

Black Friday/Thanksgiving:

Add Macy’s to the list of retailers kicking off “Black Friday” and Thanksgiving Thursday.

Macy’s will open the doors at most of its 800 namesake department stores, at 8 p.m. on Nov. 28. The company said the shift was voluntary for workers and that the move was “consistent with what many rivals are doing.

Traditionally, retailers have waited until Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving, to start their end-of-the-year push for sales.

U.S. retailers have extended their hours on Black Friday, so named because it\’s when most stroes go into the black, in recent years to get a jump on the holiday season sales.

via Macy’s latest retailer to open holiday shopping season on Thanksgiving – chicagotribune.com.

William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”, grammatically Incorrect, Mental Floss, Miley Cyrus, AMA Manual of Style, Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”), Eric Clapton (“Lay Down Sally”), lay/lie:

But did he? The comment links to a blog entry from the AMA Manual of Style on Faulkner’s use of “lay.” Though at first it may seem that the title of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is incorrect (what could be more intransitive than someone lying there dying?), the entry points out that here “lay” is actually the correct past tense of “lie.” (I know. Could these rules make it any more complicated?) So there is nothing wrong with the title.

What the article takes issue with is a sentence from the novel “you lay you down and rest you.” Obviously, this is in the vernacular and not to be taken as textbook grammatical, and yes, “the correct form of the sentence would use the intransitive verb: ‘You lie down.’” But here, even within the context of this non-standard dialect, Faulkner follows the rule. The verb “lay” does take an object in “you lay you down,” and the object is “you.” Not much different from “now I lay me down to sleep,” a sentence even the strictest red pen will pass over without a second glance.

So let’s leave Faulkner out of this. If you want, you can take it up with Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”) or Eric Clapton (“Lay Down Sally”). But it’s probably time we all just laid our tired bootys down and started focusing on more important matters, such as, what is the proper plural of “booty”?

via Is “As I Lay Dying” Grammatically Incorrect? | Mental Floss.

Einstein, “Combinatory Play”, secret of genius, Brain Pickings:

The concept, in fact, was perhaps best explained by Albert Einstein, who termed it “combinatory play.” (Einstein famously came up with some of his best scientific ideas during his violin breaks.) From his Ideas and Opinions (public library) — the same invaluable volume that gave us the beloved physicist’s timeless wisdom on kindness and our shared existence — comes Einstein’s single most succinct articulation of how his mind works, driven by this powerful combinatorial creativity. The 1945 letter was written in response to French mathematician Jacques S. Hadamard’s survey of the mental processes of famous scientists, inspired by polymath Henri Poincaré’s famous meditation on the subject and published as An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field, with Einstein’s missive included as a “testimonial”:

via How Einstein Thought: Why “Combinatory Play” Is the Secret of Genius | Brain Pickings.

Dan Pink, lists, My 5 favorite talks on work, TED Playlists, TED:  5 more for me to watch …

Dan Pink: My 5 favorite talks on work

Popular business author Dan Pink picks his 5 favorite TED Talks on how to find greater success at work.

via Dan Pink: My 5 favorite talks on work | TED Playlists | TED.

clutter-clearing myths,  The Happiness Project:

One of my great realizations about happiness (and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists) is that for most people, outer order contributes to inner calm. More, really, than it should. After all, in the context of a happy life, a crowded coat closet is trivial. And yet over and over, people tell me, and I certainly find this, myself, that creating order gives a huge boost in energy, cheer, and creativity.

But as much as most of us want to keep our home, office, car, etc. in reasonable order, it’s tough. Here’s a list of some myths of de-cluttering that make it harder to get rid of stuff.

via Do You Fall for Any of These Common Clutter-Clearing Myths? « The Happiness Project.





