3 Ring Binder

(found at The Clothes Make the Girl )

Those who live in The People's House should not throw bricks.

Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to hasten my departure, and is in a very bad humor with me because I insist on waiting until the large picture of   Gen. Washington   is secured, and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. This process was found too tedious for these perilous moments; I have ordered the frame to be broken, and the canvass taken out it is done, and the precious portrait placed in the hands of two gentlemen of New York, for safe keeping. And now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it, by filling up the road I am directed to take. When I shall again write you, or where I shall be tomorrow, I cannot tell!! Dolley Madison to her sister, August 23 rd /24 th , 1814 George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart 1796 More on the primary source document can be found  here . A detailed study of the portrait can be found  here .

What do Philip Johnson’s Glass House , Ticket to Ride , The Mystic Aquarium , and the USS Nautilus have in common?  Two things I can think of: they’re all in Connecticut and my family enjoyed them all over one of my famous, crazy 24-hour flash tours this weekend. First the Glass House. Philip Johnson 's weekend retreat: The Glass House, 1949 I’ve made attempts – at least once a year – to go on a tour of the property since it opened four years ago.  It was either sold out (most frequently) or we didn’t have the time.  I really wanted to bring the girls with us because I think it’s good for them to experience examples of good design in order to cultivate a sense of appreciation for it, especially when we live in organized chaos.  I was not mistaken – they loved it and were particularly enamored of the outdoor rooms meticulously designed by Johnson himself!  The pond and climbing structure as one view from the Glass House. Overall, Johnson’s Glas...

President Obama spoke Monday  regarding the need for car makers to understand that people don't want SUVs and trucks ! They want to save money ! They want fuel efficient vehicles ! Why are those silly car makers bothering to spend money on research and marketing when the president is around to help them suss things out? At one point he actually had the audacity to say, "You have got to understand the market." And just in case the market, which is already far from free, does not respond in the manner the Commander in Chief thinks is appropriate,  here is his administration's plan to help shape that Medium and Heavy Duty Engines and Vehicles market. All 958 pages of it. Grab a pot of coffee and enjoy. It's for your own good, you know. His approach to the market reminds me of something. Now what was that? Oh yes: "Do you believe?" he cried. Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate. She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, ...

As one of the self-described “mega-rich” in this country, Warren Buffett tries to make a compelling case regarding the inequality of tax laws and “ other blessings” which he complains “are showered upon us by legislators in Washington” in today's New York Times.  “Most wouldn't mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering,” he states of his fellow ultra wealthy brethren.   Where is the controversy here? More importantly, where is the connection?  It's as if Mr. Buffett thinks that our economy can be fixed by throwing more money into the government coffers! Then do it, Mr. Buffett! No one is stopping you or your really swell mega-rich compatriots from giving all of your money away!  This will hardly make a dent in our national debt. But go ahead! Go for it! That's your choice. And your personal choice is not news. The newsworthiness of this piece lies in the fact that people like Mr. Buffett –...

In a fit of trying to rid the house of unnecessary items (only to bring in more unnecessary items at a later date when I forget why I threw a fit to get rid of the other stuff in the first place) I don't do as much catalog shopping as I used to. In fact, other than Lands End - who might NEVER remove me from their mailing list for reasons only they can understand - a scant three companies bother to send catalogs to my house on a regular basis: Bas Bleu , The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store , and Uncommon Goods .  I love them all! Here are a few of the things in Uncommon Goods that I won't buy but am very happy to know exist in the world for others to buy (or make): 1. The F-bomb  Paperweight The possibility of dropping this rather than its namesake in front of my neighbor's kids gives me further reason to break out my welding kit. 2. Personalized Couple Pillow I could draw a certain cartoonish likeness of folks, but my more crafty friends could definitely make t...

An out-of-commission laptop led to dueling Heinleins, instead. (The cover of my book has a man in a kilt in case you were wondering.)  Original Dueling Laptops here .

I finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1854-55 serialized novel, North and South , last week and spent one glorious weekend with the BBC interpretations of her Cranford and North & South . I lifted the title of this post directly from the character biography on IMDb , but only because it was so perfectly in line with what I had been thinking: Although Ms. Gaskell was writing forty years after Ms. Austen, one cannot help but compare her romantic hero, Mr. John Thornton, with the latter's paragon of Regency romance. Having more of an intriguing perpetual scowl than sigh-invoking love-look, John Thornton is a serious manly man who never had time to cultivate the formalities of romantic attachments yet still had the serious (mis)fortune to fall hard in love with a young woman who always spoke her mind. Richard Armitage as BBC's Mr. Thornton. Original love-god, Colin Firth as BBC's Mr. Darcy Sadly, unlike Mr. Darcy—who had the literary orphan advantage—Mr...

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Objectivist Round Up:  A somewhat smaller, but nonetheless strong showing of what some Objectivist bloggers have been writing about (or talking about) this week. Jenn Casey and Kelly Elmore presents Podcast #17: Brainstorming a Parenting Problem posted at Cultivating the Virtues , saying, “In this podcast, Jenn and Kelly brainstorm a real-life parenting problem and come up with several options for handling it.” Toby Selwyn presents Changing Minds I: Discrimination Laws posted at One for One , saying, “The first in my series of articles debunking some of the work I wrote four years ago on my atheist blog of the time, A Load of Bright.” Rob Abiera presents The problem with taxes posted at The Oklahoma Capitalist , saying, “The problem with taxes is: they aren't voluntary - as illustrated by an editorial in the local newspaper.” Diana Hsieh presents Does the Right to Life Trump Property Rights? posted at NoodleFood , saying, “Does the...

Goofball educational film from the 70s: Fifteen year-old gets her first period and her slacker boyfriend writes a report about it. His ability to withstand her constant chatter about her period is more convincing when we see him have to carry home a partially bagged jumbo Kotex package for his mother. Despite the goofiness of the missing wastebasket “problem,” the pharmacist who lays out all the feminine protection choices, and the pony-tailed man who would like to have his period, the movie ends up being able to impart some decent information about menstruation in an oddly humorous and matter-of-fact manner. From the Prelinger Archives

I would have used the hyphenated word had I wanted to discuss a quaint walk-up in the Shire. Alas, this is truly about a  foot on the ground : specifically my bare foot on the hot, hot ground. Yes, this is about burn/friction blisters the size of half-dollars on the both feet from barefoot running! It was only a 400m barefoot warm-up run, which I have done several times since the barefoot running clinic.  Some of the time it was at 7 in the morning or 7 at night, but the initial barefoot run was done at 3:00 on a wicked hot day!  At 3:00 the heat is radiating back from the pavement surface making it even hotter, and yet, I had no problem on that day. Yesterday, however, I burned the hell out of both feet. I will spare you further description except to add that I am walking like a fragile old lady trying not to pop the gigantic blisters and invite infection which results in death ( as warned by my mother ). The good news is that the huge blisters are in the right sp...

According to a New York Times article and its interactive info-graphic , last week my household was like over 500,000 other households in the US with a married couple and three kids, two under the age of 18.    Then, when one of my daughters turned 18, our household became less common, if you will, with a married couple and three kids, but only one under the age of 18.    As my son prepares to move out into his own house, we are left with the fact that we are soon to become a household like over 1% of the households in this country.  Even more frightening is the fact that as my daughter heads out to college, our type household will become quite commonplace: a married couple with one child under the age of 18 – similar to over 5% of the households in the country.   Staring down that sea of sameness and struggling, somehow, to distinguish ourselves, we came up with a plan.