A tiny silver turtle, a fish, a bird, a duck and a frog—60-year old birthday candle holders.
A gift from a dear friend of my mother—a 3x “boy mom” who so loved little girls—on the occasion of my first birthday (we think).
Passed by my mother to me, I used them when I remembered. (The candle holes are narrow, so candles must be shaved to fit.)
Now they are polished and ready to go to my daughter.
We pass things on.
They use what they wish.
Posted for John’s Cellpic Sunday
This door is a work of art by Kazumi Tanaka, a living artist born in 1962.
First conceived in 1996 during an unusual artist residency at Sabbathday Lake in Maine (the last active Shaker community in the world), Tanaka’s door was not shown until 2025. As part of The ICA/Boston’s Believers exhibition, the anamorphic door sat permanently ajar and is said to have alluded to Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee’s sentiment that the Shakers should open windows and doors to receive “whoever will arrive” in a spirit of openness and generosity.
Thursday Doors challenge
With increasingly unhinged far right authoritarians running the show here in the US, it’s hard to stay calm. Due to the Kirk assassination, many people will no longer be able to speak their minds due to promised retaliation by the government. And I don’t just mean talk show hosts and journalists. Teachers, doctors, university leaders, nonprofit administrators and regular old corporate employees are losing their jobs over what they say.
Here’s Commander Waterford and Commander Putnam lying about left-leaning organizations promoting violence and telling us their grand plan for Gilead.
Therefore, if you are able, I recommend escaping to the great outdoors or, if it’s raining, the great indoors—a big-ass movie theater with reclining seats, Dolby Atmos sound, and a bar.
I thoroughly enjoyed the sold-out premiere of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. If you ever loved the show, you won’t want to miss the final installment set in 1930. Downton looks amazing on the big screen and your old favorite characters all make appearances, even the deceased ones. Not to give too much away, but acceptance of divorced women and gay people into polite society is a major theme.
You will be reminded that time marches on and progress has—and always will be—a matter of more inclusion, rather than less.
It’s Cellpic Sunday and I’ve learned a new word: lamellae (the gills of a mushroom). I’m a native English speaker and I’d never heard it before.
The singular version is lamella.
🍄🍄🟫🍄🍄🟫🍄🍄🟫🍄
My husband and I tried to remember the last time we’d seen a gruesome assassination of a public figure. We couldn’t think of anything. We were too young to have seen JFK’s mortal head wound (when his brains went spattering across Jackie’s suit). And when John Lennon got shot, there was no video. Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota legislator assassinated in June, and her husband were not nationally known and again, there was no video.
So, this Charlie Kirk assassination is fairly shocking to me. I watched the close-up video and wow…a total kill shot. His whole upper body shook, and blood came spurting out of his neck as he went limp with the microphone in his hand. Absolutely horrific.
Even though we see it in movies and on TV all the time, real murder and gun violence is scarring to see at close range, even in a video.
Check-out Lydia’s post for a clearer understanding of Mr. Kirk’s views on gun violence and policy in the United States.
As I’ve already mentioned, I’m 💯% Team Rosie so I watched her interview on 60 Minutes Australia with great interest.
I did not love the guy who interviewed her. He seemed smug. (And what the heck is a “jelly” in Australia. Was that some sort of an insult in his opening? Maybe Brizzy May can explain.)
I thought Rosie did pretty well under the circumstances. She still managed to be funny and light in a very serious situation. She’s basically a United States artist and citizen living in exile due to fear of retribution from the President of the United States. It’s so fucked up.
What do you think?
Related post:
I’ve already blogged about using ChatGPT for multiple previously human-held roles in my life including
And now, as I’ve been trying to get my high school drawing skills back, I can add “art teacher” to the list.
I asked her what she thought of this sketch of a dining room chair:
and of course she first blew smoke up my ass (as she always does):
But then she gave me some pretty solid and helpful criticism:
And she even suggested some drawing exercises that I might actually try.
Just so you know, I’m registered to take two art classes from real human art teachers this fall. I hope they’re as nice to me as ChatGPT.
Related posts:
I no longer own a 35mm camera, so all my pics are cell pics these days, but it’s fun to join in a creative group activity like John’s Cellpic Sunday.
I took this with the ultra wide lens (0.5x) on my iPhone 15. I like it because it captures lots of beach & sky and my legs look very long and tan and no cellulite is visible at that angle. They almost look like my old legs from my lifeguard days.
The CVS app said that the newly updated Covid vaccine is available so I decided to get one while I can (before the brain worm host sends us back to the 1940s).
I easily booked an appointment to get both the new Covid vaccine and the updated flu shot at my local Massachusetts CVS. Since I’m under 65, I had to choose a “condition” to qualify for the Covid vaccine of which many were listed including mood disorders and having a BMI over 25. I chose “current or former smoker” which is true, but nobody asked for any proof of that.
Nobody asked me for my insurance card or charged me any money. I got one jab in each arm and a 50% off coupon. I bought some moisturizer that’s supposed to make me look younger with the coupon.
Today I’m continuing to join in creative group activities offered by other blogs.
Dwight at Roth Poetry frequently participates in the dVerse poets pub challenges and he inspired me to give it a go.
So here’s my cinquain:
Morning
coffee
Wordle (not hard)
social media scan
news so outrageous it angers
crossword
[A cinquain is a short poem based on syllable count—a five-line poem with a syllable count of 2-4-6-8-2.]
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