Cooperation is the New Name of the Game

August 29, 2020

I wrote a post on another platform a little while ago saying that in order to survive the pandemic downturn, companies may need to form partnerships with other companies to keep their businesses going.

Today I read that Microsoft and Walmart may be buying TikTok together.

I rest my case.

A Rider on Riders?

August 29, 2020

Under a new Missouri state law, motorcycle riders won’t have to wear a helmet if they are at least 26 years old, and can prove that they have health insurance.

I wonder how the insurance companies are taking that.

I wonder if they’ll start adding policy riders (no pun intended) that exclude injuries caused by not wearing a helmet.

I'm Ahead of the Retro Curve

August 18, 2020          

I read that more people are buying clothes from resale shops these days. Apparently wearing older fashions is becoming more popular, with disposable income becoming more limited.

Since I am incurably lazy about shopping, wearing older fashions is what I do.

Finally, my wardrobe is getting trendy.

It's Finger Lickin’…Never Mind

August 24, 2020

They changed their name, but not their slogan. Now KFC—formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken—is putting “Finger Lickin’ Good” on hold for a while, as it has distinctly unhygienic overtones in these hygiene-conscious times.

Another casualty of the pandemic.

Coordinating the Accessory

August 20, 2020

In “Jane the Virgin”, a character who lost an eye wore a different eye patch to match each outfit. It was a visual gag that not everyone noticed, but it was fun. You had to admire her rolling with the punches.

Now I see people wearing masks that coordinate with their outfits. I applaud their willingness to try to make wearing the mask fashionable. It sure beats griping about it.

An Almost-Perfect Book

January 3, 2020

(I swear, I thought I had published this one. But when I was raving about the Simon Brett book, I found out that I hadn’t.)

I have finally found a book that didn’t drive me crazy with incorrectly used verb tenses.

On top of that, it was engagingly written, and had a lot of historical information on Hollywood design.

It’s called Design for Dying, by Renee Patrick, and I cannot speak highly enough of it.

My only quarrel with it was that the heroine, as usual, meets a guy and dithers about him. I really could do without that. But honestly, I loved this book.

And that’s rare.

The Clutter Corpse—A Five-Star Review

August 22, 2020

Dear Simon Brett:

The Clutter Corpse was literally the answer to a prayer.

Sadly, I’m not talking about your masterful handling of depression, which I hope helps people understand the condition better. It really was amazing to see it spelled out so empathetically.

No, I’m talking about all the story tropes you’ve managed to avoid, to wit:

Young woman returns to a (usually) quirky hometown after some life-failure or other; opens a business; finds a body; decides, on the flimsiest of pretexts, to investigate the murder herself; withholds information from the authorities; meets a hunk; dithers for fully half the story (or series) about whether or not he likes her despite the massive signals he’s sending (because, inexplicably, he never gets around to actually asking her out); and does something incredibly stupid at the end to put herself in danger.

Bonus Quibble 1: The same person finds the body, time after time. Doesn’t anybody else in this town ever in walk in the woods or explore old houses? Bonus Quibble 2: Ordinary-looking women marvel that the hunk has fallen for them; neither ordinary nor stunning women ever fall for ordinary-looking men. Bonus Quibble 3: Women under 5’8” complain about being short. I’m 5’3”, and the only time I feel short is when I’m trying to reach items on the top shelf. Never when I’m around taller people. Bonus Quibble 4: Authors these days seem to be unable to use verb tenses consistently or correctly.

But you avoided most of this. I did not gnash my teeth once during this story (although there was one eye-roll moment which I will not reveal to my blog readers).

The “answer to a prayer” part was because I have been looking for years for an engaging story that didn’t commit one or all of the above sins. Some stories are very well written, but either because authors go for the easy kill, or they are strong-armed by editors, they always include the cliched idiocy into the stories. I had about given up on finding books that, no matter how well-written otherwise, wouldn't make me grind my teeth with all the will-he/won’t-he havering.

Many thanks.

(If you could please avoid the Romance Cliffhanger cliché, where the protagonist seems like s/he’s finally going to get things straightened out with his/her true love at the end of the book, only to have the song and dance repeated throughout the series, I’d appreciate it. Charles Paris’s travails in this direction got on my nerves.)

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to the next Decluttering Mystery.

Back-to-School Heartburn

August 20, 2020

It’s back to school (for some students).

And their parents are BUSY. Busy driving them to school, or to or from activities, trying to squeeze all that in before or during work hours. Too busy to leave on time, so they’re always rushing. They don’t have time to drive responsibly.

That means that the rest of us have to put up with the parents who tailgate, or weave, or pull out in front of other drivers because THEY have to get someplace in a hurry—and they’re more important than the rest of us.

Pass the antacid, please.

They're Leaving Room in the Judging

August 20, 2020

Have you ever looked at online reviews? Have you ever noticed that someone will praise the work quality, the professionalism, and the promptness of completion—and then award the company four out of five stars? What else are they expecting?

Maybe they’re used to the Olympics, where the judges don’t give high marks to the first participants, because they’re expecting the later ones to be better.

So are these people going to hire another electrician for the same job and see if they do it better?

Remember, We're All Related

 

August 19, 2020

 

A few years ago I learned that aspen trees reproduce by having sprouts grow from tree roots that are near the surface. So one aspen tree can become a grove of trees—but they’re all the same tree. They’re genetically identical—clones, as it were.*

Willow trees do something similar, but a willow frond can float downstream and plant itself elsewhere, moving the genes around. One writer claims that all the weeping willows in the world are genetically identical.

Since we’re all the same species, I wish people acted like we all shared the same root system, and took care of each other accordingly.

 

I should get a T-shirt printed that says, “Be a willow.”**

 

 

*(On a less elevated note, crab grass propagates the same way. But it’s not as charming an image.)

 

 **(“Be an aspen” would sum up my feelings more accurately, but “Be a willow” sounds better.)

 

Tightening Procedures

 

August 17, 2020

 

Patrol officers in Renton, WA were following procedure when they locked their vehicles, with the engines running, while they went to speak to a suspected car thief. But it seems like the procedure didn’t take into account the chutzpah of certain suspects.

The officers tried to talk to the suspect, but he walked away; he then reached through the open window of one of the patrol cars, unlocked it, and took the car for a ride.

The car and the suspect were both recovered.

 

No word on whether procedure will now dictate closed windows and extra keys for the patrol cars.

Wanna Take That Back?

 

August 15, 2020

The blog site has been updated. Now, before you publish a post, it asks, “Publish Post? This will publish this post to your blog.”

I feel like it’s saying, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

 

It makes me uneasy.

They Can Enforce the Dress Code, but not the Mask Mandate

 

August 10, 2020

 

I saw an article the other day about the Georgia school that suspended a student for taking a picture of the crowded school hallway, full of unmasked students. School administrators said that they were unable to enforce a mask mandate.

Kelsey Stiegman, of Seventeen magazine, pointed out that the school district has a dress code about how long shorts must be; that shoulders must be covered; and that one middle school devotes 3 pages of its dress code to leggings.

Why, she asks, can schools take the time to measure how long a girl’s shorts are, and make students abide by a dress code; but can’t make students abide by a mask mandate? Especially when you can tell at a glance who is and who isn’t wearing a mask?

 

Excellent question.

 

 

School Is Not Day Care

 

August 11, 2020

Letter to Kathleen Parker, columnist at the Washington Post:

Dear Ms. Parker:

You made some cogent points in your column about why teachers should be considered front-line workers and return to school.

But you almost lost me in the second sentence: “In the other [ear], an exhausted mother of two young children tells me she's praying her kids can go back to school.”

School is not day care, Ms. Parker. Exhausted mothers can find like-minded parents online and trade babysitting dates.

School is there for students to learn, not so parents can park their kids and go to work. (Yes, as a working mother, I did have trouble juggling work and kids when school was out; so I know whereof I speak.)

PLEASE do not spread the notion that school exists to give parents a break from their children. Teachers are not babysitters. Please don't reinforce the idea that that's what they are. Too many people think that already.

Art Exploration

August 5, 2020

The St. Louis Art Museum emails an Object of the Day to members. Today’s was a print by Maija Isola, which was donated by Marimekko Corporation. I looked up Marimekko and found out that it is a store in Finland that produces clothing, home goods, etc.,  and that Isola used to design for them. 

I got curious and looked at the Marimekko website. The clothing didn’t move me much, but the “Our Story” section of their website had a dazzling video about their fabric printing. It was only a few seconds long, but I loved it.

 Art Exploration really CAN take you places!