3 Ring Binder

Like the Ladies of LUPEC , another 30-something Bostonian professional has caught my eye with her experimentations.   Rather than being united in the preservation of endangered cocktails, this young woman set out to showcase the versatility of one classic dress: the Diane von Furstenberg classic wrap dress . DVF wrap dress currently selling at Saks As recorded in her blog, The DVF Experiment , Caitlyn wore her “wisest gift I have ever given anyone,” black viscose dress for 30 days.   The results are predictable: with the help of a same-day dry cleaner, a roommate photographer, and some Febreze, the DVF was appropriate for 29 out of 30 occasions (failing only in the " marathon spectator who jumps up and down" category).   The DVF Experiment author at DVF in NYC! I have mentioned the fabulousness of my “go-to” black wrap dress in the past.   Because it is a Sears brand dress, and because I paid less than 10% of the DVF price, it does not have the real ...

is a lot of Hi-De-Ho.  So says Betty Boop in 1932.

Dear Reader, Since July of 2009, I have posted 329 times out of 332 days.   While not every post represents a different day, those numbers mean that I’ve made an entry to this blog nearly every day for the better part of a year.   It really wasn’t until November that I actually made the daily posting challenge to myself – taking off time near Christmas – but still, that’s a pretty consistent record. As far as quality goes, I’ll admit that the content often dropped sharply when frequency, rather than inspiration, became the motivation for me to post.   Even with the occasional dogs (and I mean insipid posts, not posts regarding actual dogs about which I am generally and genuinely excited), I’m pleased that I could find something I was at least interested in writing something about every day.   Better, as a result, I have several meaty draft posts that I started and abandoned for time’s sake that I can work on when my daily personal challenge is over. I’m going t...

Like linking to the last three Objectivist Round Ups in May! Here they are in chronological order: May 13 th , The Birthday Carnival at Erosophoria . May 20 th , # Eleventyhundred and Three at Trey Givens : a blog about a hero. And today’s, # 150 at Secular Foxhole . Go. Read. Think. And check out this incredibly cool Drumbrella design by Dong Min Park ( Design Fetish via StumbleUpon from Tuvie ).   Stretched waxed skins mimic different drum head sounds. Why hasn't someone thought of this before?

" Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. " -- Mark Twain (1835-1910) This bit of advice from Liberty Quotes this morning reminded me of my favorite maritime quotation, so I sought out its source: "A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. " I found not only its source, but also the story of an indefatigable pioneer in the nascent computer science field, Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) who said it.      Ms. Hopper was a Rear Admiral in the US Navy and an early computer scientist.  Her list of accomplishments  is impressive. And while I’m certain you’ve heard this amusing anecdote, perhaps you didn’t realize the significance of Grace Murray Hopper’s reported role in it: While she was working on a Mark II Computer at Harvard University in 1947, her a...

Or, Beach Day in May in the Northeast has its Risks. Today, it reached 93°F.   We simply had to go to the beach. (I make it a point to jump into the ocean at least once a year and to get it done before the beaches get mobbed is a great opportunity!) Sadly, this extreme air condition did not instantly charge the ocean water to a warm 80°, or even an acceptable 70°.   Today, according to surf-forecast.com, the surface temperature of the ocean where we were was about 53°F.    [From Wikipedia] Heat is lost more quickly in water. Water temperatures that would be quite reasonable as outdoor air temperatures can lead to hypothermia. Water temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) often lead to death in one hour, and water temperatures hovering at freezing can lead to death in as little as 15 minutes. Water at a temperature of 26 °C (79 °F) may after prolonged exposure lead to hypothermia. The enormous thermal capacitance of the ocean made quick work of the impossib...

We are repeatedly told that money causes corruption: money used to campaign for or against a candidate will not only unduly influence election results (leaving aside the clear implication of a certain level of obtuseness among the electorate), but also corrupts the votes of the politician.   The idea that the politician can be bought is passed over for the idea that money can buy the politician! Money, not principles, is often recognized as the source of power in the political system. What must be examined is not the motivation of those trying to influence politics with money, but the ideas held by each politician, and the price at which he is willing to part with his principles.   What needs to be examined is his price for this political pragmatism. For an eye-opening view on the evils of pragmatism, a philosophy in which the end justifies the means, read Saul Alinsky’s, Rules for Radicals .   I think it should be subtitled: How to Make Exto...

It doesn’t rhyme with Morton (sigh, Morton ), or Gordon.   The nearest way I can describe how to pronounce it is cau’-tauh n .   It’s French Canadian for the pure delight that is yummy pork fat spread. I was recently reminded of its delicious goodness on Friday when talking to my mother-in-law.   For a portion of her young life, she grew up in the exact same 12-house neighborhood that I did prior to the age of nine! Now that’s a little weird if you think about it too hard – so don’t– but this connection allows us to enjoy reminiscing about the oddities particular to these early influences. We discussed the houses: she lived in the one with the biggest yard at the far end of the street and I lived in the one with the barroom parking lot for a backyard on the main street.   We discussed the neighborhood: generations of family from her youth who were still there in mine.   And we discussed the area: the market on the corner of our neighborhood and the main street...

Listen to the following piece by Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), and between 1:50 and 3:30, you will be able to hear the somewhat wistful, somewhat triumphant theme to our day.   (You can hear a recording of the ubiquitous Trio section of the march as directed by Elgar in 1931 here .) Despite its amazing popularity, did you know  that "Pomp and Circumstance" is actually the title of a series of six Elgar marches, and not just the Trio portion of March No. 1 that we're all familiar with? Did you know that the title of marches is taken from Act III of Shakespeare's Othello ? "Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump, The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, The royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!". Or that, written in 1901, March No. 1 was first played as a graduation processional at the 1905 Yale ceremony during which Sir Edward Elgar received an honorary Doctorate of Music? OR,...

This was always among my husband’s favorite paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts , and one that I’d always found terribly ghoulish. While he told me the story behind the painting, it did little to change my feelings about it until I recently stumbled upon the artistic inspiration for the piece, Keats poem, “Isabella; or the Pot of Basil.” Now that painting is my favorite among the many that illustrate the dramatic sorrow of Isabella.  John White Alexander, 1897 The poem tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with a young man who works for her two brothers.   Since her brothers are determined to marry her off in order to increase the family fortune, they kill her unsuitable suitor. She discovers their treachery, exhumes her lover’s head, and plants it in a pot of basil which she waters with her tears.   You can read the entire 63 stanza poem, published in 1820, here and below, see some of the many paintings the tragic story inspired, particularly a...

Today’s purpose: to illustrate, not offend, How far backwards we’re willing to bend. When cowed into silence, By threats of violence, We establish laws we can never amend.

I suggest something from the new spring line, Laissez-Faire Capitalism . Torsia, our headless model, is sporting the new woman's t-shirt in verdant, capitalist  green (other colors are available).  For more t-shirt styles boldly announcing your commitment to individual rights, including private property and the separation of the economy and state in one neat package check out the  Capitalism  section . Feeling more activist-minded? Consider passing out buttons or bumper stickers . I never thought that I would need to become a defender of capitalism . The proliferation of statists spewing collectivist slogans are actually referring to failings of an over-regulated, mixed economy, yet, they are in not burdened by that truth in their attempts to malign capitalism. I wanted to make a small effort to directly contrast their false notions by showing my support for the one social system in which individual participation...

As summer approaches and schedules of edifying classes are posted, we’re beginning to feel the pinch that comes from being unable to attend OCON this year .   Even with the incredible value dense experience we had last year , we just can’t afford to go to Las Vegas for this year’s conference.   But all is not lost. Thanks to the organizational efforts of some other NO CON 2010 folks, we’re able to make the trip to AOSMCON (go ahead - pronounce it “Awesome Con” – you know you want to), the Atlanta Objectivist Society mini-conference! Based on what I’ve read , I’d recommend that anyone who wants to, but is unable to attend OCON for lack of finances or time, consider attending AOSMCON. It takes place over a long weekend, and perhaps because the classes are given by Objectivists who are not professional philosophers or speakers, as well as the fact that this is a first time labor of love (I’m sure), the price of the conference is hardly worth mentioning! For me, the biggest...

Arugula salad with toasted pecans, ripe D'Anjou pears, and a white truffle oil vinaigrette (my favorite). Flank steak with basil and Parmesan (Bobby Flay).  This was Stephen's first foray into flank steak. Flank is a typically tough cut of beef, but he seared and grilled the rolled "roast" so it stayed juicy. I would have never thought to put basil in with steak, but it added an unusually bright note and enhanced the taste. (I snapped the shot before the garnish police got ahold of it.)

As cake season approaches (graduations, birthdays, cookouts, father’s day, etc.), I have to remember to balance the nutritional desert that is the white flour and refined sugar dessert against the tasty treat that is cake.   Happily, I’m not a huge fan of cake, but when it’s in the house it’s hard for me to resist. Now that the youngest of the remaining occupants in my house has gotten into the cake baking habit, I’m requesting that no cake be allowed in the house unless it looks like this. From today’s Cake Wrecks . My daughter suggested that her father has quite a lot of work to do in the next month in order to reproduce this beauty for her birthday. Now that I finally started reading Good Calories, Bad Calories , I seconded her thoughts adding that it will be extra challenging to reproduce in meat !

Although I could do with a lot less Blake Ritson (Richard Grant and a few others I don’t even know), a lot more Colin Firth , Alan Rickman , and at least some Ioan Gruffudd as Horatio Hornblower , I do appreciate the addition of JJ Field, Ciaran Hinds, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Mark Strong (what is that Clive Owen movie?), and Gabrielle Byrne. More importantly, this little compilation of actors portraying (mostly) heroic men in period costume set against Justin Timberlake’s 2006 big promise works for me.   Which is good news.   I was beginning to get concerned that I had lost my appreciation for, and ability to celebrate such things.

I’m old and terminally responsible. At least that’s how I’ve been feeling since last night when I was test-driving a beautiful Sterling Gray 2010 Mustang GT V-8 convertible.   I insisted that the roof be up because I didn’t want to be swayed by the wrong incentives to buy the car.   In fact, having the top down and taking an on-ramp at 50 mph might be the only two reasons one might possibly consider buying that kind of car. But as I watched my impossibly slight slip of a child slide into the backseat with her book I thought to myself, Do I really want her to spend the rest of her ‘tween and early teen years as a second class citizen in the back of mommy’s second-seat-as-second-thought muscle car? Then it hit me.   No. No, I don’t.   And this thought struck me: With only four seats (two of which only minimally meet that criterion) we can never go anywhere as a family again.   Well, that one didn’t hit me so hard because frankly, driving all together is not all ...

Leave it to Massachusetts to propose the mandated display of lurid posters everywhere cigarettes are sold.   The posters, which will be modeled after the ones used in no less a nanny-state than New York City, show a rotten tooth, cancer filled lungs, the scan of a brain after a stroke as the effects from smoking.   They are disgusting, sensationalized, graphic appeals to the smoker’s more thoughtful nature. They will also cost the convenience store owner between $100 and $300 if not displayed within two feet of tobacco products he sells, but nothing to display. According to today’s Boston Globe , they will be produced with federal stimulus funds. The campaign is being underwritten by $316,000 in federal stimulus money from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will allow the state to provide the materials to retailers without charge. Sweet! Free posters. The real cost?   Another, seemingly inconsequential, nail placed on the coffin of business under ...

Tonight I had my first burlesque class: glove and stocking removal. So I removed them.   But far better than my sadly clinical removal (hey –   I’m working on it) of these accessories   was my learning about body movements a la Francois Delsarte and how gloves are measured in buttons (think horses in hands).   From Wikipedia Delsarte studied singing at the Paris Conservatory and became unsatisfied with the arbitrary and posed style of acting taught there. He began to study how humans actually moved, behaved and responded to various emotional and real life situations. He achieved this by observing people in real life and in public places of all kinds. Through his observations he discovered certain patterns of expression, eventually called the Science of Applied Aesthetics . This consisted of a thorough examination of voice, breath, movement dynamics, encompassing all of the expressive elements of the human body. Burlesque is just a form of story-telling through the a...