One of my favorite modern composers. Yeah, I know. I’m just full of little surprises. Give it at least three and half minutes before you start talking about cats being killed and washing machines falling down flights of stairs.

Did you know that October 5th is Plaidurday? I had never heard of it before but I’m glad that this time I found out about the day before it happened, unlike that corduroy thing that I missed. I don’t think I have any more plaid to sew but I have plaid to wear if it’s [...]

A neighborhood does not go downhill because so many members of Demographic A were replaced by members of Demographic B; a neighborhood goes downhill because people who give a damn were replaced by people who don’t. — here Are we women just sentenced to struggling with body image our whole lives? Must we be in [...]

Theories of Autumn – weird but nice Summertime friends, heading south Pumpkin bread – Mmmmmm… I must make both of these. Mind the Gap – a blog dedicated to Britishisms in American English (indirectly via AMCGLTD) Geninne’s Art Blog – Excellent! Steampunk art and gadgets Punched and Ruled – Interesting photographs Bacon and eggs scarf [...]

I embedded this once several autumns ago. It’s time to go there again.

Each week Curious as a Cat posts three questions and a “Show and Tell” picture. So, I might start answering them every week. Or I might not. Or sometime I might answer previous weeks’ questions. You know how it goes. Here are this week’s questions. 1. Share what you enjoy most about today’s technology. Oh, [...]

Wow. Samizdata linked to my smart-alecky little football post. That’s great. If ever I had an opinion that I wanted to share with more people than just my half-dozen fans that would be one of them. It sort of makes me wish I had written more of a rant but that’s really all I had [...]

Ann Rowley’s Photostream – sewing, quilting, knitting, including tutorials Snacktime – A fun blog post about low calorie snacks. No really. Fun. (BTW, she kinda uses the F-word a lot. Not judging, just thought I’d mention it in case anyone is bothered by that sort of thing.) Great Observation Towers Bamboo smartphone – The bamboo [...]

I have no idea what the problem is with the referees – my heart tells me to blame the NFL – but, as with most such situations, I think all parties involved in the negotiations should be locked in a room with no food, nothing to drink except tap water, only metal folding chairs to [...]

Call Me Stormy has declared this A Day of Bacon. Unfortunately, I don’t have any bacon in the house right now. It is getting to be bacon season around here though. I know, I know… any time is a good time for bacon. Our problem is that we don’t have a proper exhaust fan in [...]

I might as well just eat Twinkies….you can’t win. You try to be healthy and it’s all founded on lies. — here (I want to believe it’s all just a conspiracy theory made up by the California olive industry.) As a defiantly pale, vaguely Northern European person such environments make me feel rather like a [...]

Last night I watched this week’s episode of Copper (BBC) and there was a fancy party, with the inevitable string quartet. This was a bit more realistic than most fancy party scenes. Usually you hear the same few bars of music over and over again for what is supposed to be an entire evening of [...]

Patterns from the newspaper – A nice bit of sewing and publishing history. I like this: “ Note that she wanted to make sure that her readers knew not to wear the playsuit to the grocery store.” Ah, the good old days, when people still cared about appropriate attire. How shocked my grandmother would be [...]

Making fun of high fashion is so much fun and Prttynpnk does it so well, to an exceptionally deserving designer. Seriously, WTF? And someone needs to introduce this designer to a nifty undergarment called a slip. Or… just to undergarments, period.

Dustbury linked to this interesting article on art and neuroscience. I’m probably just being snobby here but I can’t help wondering if the brains of people who don’t like art are less evolved than the brains of art lovers. The same post also led me to Pippin & Pearl, a lovely art blog.

Metaphysical Graffiti (via) is a fascinating Flickr set of vintage illustrations. A few are weird; most are merely quaint. The set owner’s captions mostly don’t do much for me. I think the images speak for themselves very well, although I must say I do really like, “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You [...]

An answer to energy drinks? The World Geography – a blog featuring lists of things from around the world, such as Star Shaped Forts and Water Castles Unintentionally funny headlines – I like, “DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VIOLIN CASE” Art contest – I’m not an artist (I don’t even play one on the Internet) [...]

At last count, at least 33 people in the world could tell you what they ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, on February 20, 1998. — here And I don’t care about your precious happiness. Lots of people deal with lots of unhappiness. Lots of us deny our baser urges on a daily basis… Your [...]

Clara Schumann was born on today’s date in 1819.

This is not my lunch today or yesterday. I took this picture several weeks ago but never got around to posting it. Then I found out about NIAFPHFPPW (“National Irritate a Food Pic Hater Food Pic Posting Week”) (originating here) Really? There are people who hate pictures of food? Strange. I’m not sure this really [...]

Pretty Grievances keeps tempting me with patterns. First, a while back, it was McCall’s 6520. I’m looking at the view with the raglan sleeves. I don’t know about that neckline on me and I don’t like the shirt-tail hem but I’ve had such a hard time finding a good raglan sleeve pattern. Most of them [...]

Decisions, decisions. Have you ever wanted to start five projects at once? These are four of the top contenders for my next sewing project. I also have a piece of beige twill that I have literally (and I do mean literally) had for almost twenty years. It was originally destined to be pants but since [...]

Finding a Renoir at a flea market. That will never happen to me, which is probably all for the best. I would want to keep the painting but, being rather fond of money, I would also want to sell it. Of course my other half, being the practical type rather than the artsy type, would [...]

Dammit! Drug Warehouse is closing. Now I hate Walgreen’s even more. Drug Warehouse is nice, big, but not too big, and spacious. Walgreen’s is cramped, crowded and confusing. The Drug Warehouse parking lot is easy to park in and easy to get in and out of. The Walgreen’s parking lot is narrow and very difficult [...]

Every year the fashion industry gives me new reasons to be glad I know how to make my own clothes. Behold Pantone’s Top 10 Fashion Colors for Spring 2013. (via) Actually, most of them are not all that bad. My first reaction was somewhat negative but I like the green, “Tender Shoots” and the “Lemon [...]