Living In the World, Not on It

In the 1970s, bigger was better. In the ’80s and ’90s, its popularity waxed and waned. But in the ’00s, that once-revered patch of lovely lady locks performed a vanishing act. We’re talking about pubic hair, folks, and the fact that once upon a time, people embraced the bush, but over the last decade, it has fallen out of favor as more and more women opt for bald vajayjays. Some people blame porn and a youth-obsessed culture that infantilizes women for the vilification of pubic hair, while others trace its demise to Sex and the City and Carrie Bradshaw’s introduction of the Brazilian wax to the mainstream. Whatever the case, the trend has caught on enough for a college-age man in Minnesota to say that he’d never hook up with a girl with pubic hair and that he’d be disgusted to undress a woman and discover a, as the Atlantic put it, “veil of genital fur.” But the tide may be changing on this “bare is better” mentality, or at least that’s what our friends at Jeze...

The Blue Memory Meme, Part One Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!!! Today we ripped off a blogger and...

Q1 - Stop and Count : How many cosmetics or personal care products do you use over the course of an average day? Zero. None. I don't wear cosmetics. I have a couple of things left over from when I was a teenager in the early 80s, and that is it. I'll never buy any cosmetics. Q2 - Deeds : What percentage of good deeds do you feel you do out of generosity versus the ones you do out of the avoidance of guilt? Neither. I am an EMT to give something back to the township and because I'm an excitement junkie - I love the rush. So I have mostly personal reasons to do it. I certainly don't feel guilty about anything. Q3 - Find Me : Facebook launched a location-based check-in tool this week called Places. Similar to Foursquare, Facebook Places allows you to share where you are, find out where your friends are and discover new places. Would you want your friends and others on Facebook to know where you are? No, not really. But then, I don't have a cell phone that has t...

This week’s set of questions is all about what you wear, or in some cases, what you’re not wearing. How’s that for an opening line? I hope you enjoy this week’s set of questions. One other important note: if you didn’t join in last week, you might have missed the fact that commenting is a little different this month. Check out this post for details about Livefyre. Be sure to check back this week and click on the links of bloggers who play along in the comments below! It’s a great way to find blogs you may not have visited and to keep the conversation going! Here are this week’s “Saturday Six” questions. Either answer the questions in a comment here, or put the answers in an entry on your blog… But don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so that everyone else can visit! Permission is not granted to copy the questions to message boards for the purpose of having members answer and play along there. Enjoy! 1. What are you most often wearing when you’re at home in front ...

This was supposed to be posted 1 June, as it is from June's Farmer's Almanac calendar pages. Yes, the right-hand most column. Here it is: 'In 1627, John Donne, one of the great poets of our language, reflected on the miraculous in the everyday. We experience the world around us, Donne observed, as made up of mundane occurrences that we hardly notice but which, if they were rare, would be accounted prodigies. "Nay, the ordinary things in Nature would be greater miracles than the extraordinary, which we admire most, if they were done but once." 'How many events of a June afternoon bear him out? The sky darkens, thunder sounds, rain arrives, passes. A rainbow appears in the east, a vast shimmering arch of light above the valley. We pause to enjoy it, we don't fail to notice it; but then we go on about our business. We've seen rainbows before. If that rainbow were the only rainbow, if it "were done but once," we would be astonished. 'As the s...

You may recall that I had mentioned there were a list of items I was planning to post just the night before the whole hospital saga began. I'm finally here to go into those posts and get them out of my head and into cyberspace. Number 1 on the list is this post. I had been reading on 30 May the right-hand most column on the Calendar pages called Farmer's Almanac , as follows: "Nature is a bountiful giver, but she has two hands. With one she gives good news, with the other she gives...the other. Consider the bluet ( Houstonia ), high among everybody's favourite early wildflowers. This single, tiny, four-petal bloom appears in lawns, fields, and barrens before the leaves on the trees have grown and spread the shade them. Bluets spread over the ground in patches. In color, they are commonly a true, pure, light blue that, as the densely crowded little flowers cover the ground in their drifts, gives them a look almost as though someone had broken a mirror on the grass and l...

I always find that when life is hard or I'm over-thinking things, I go outside and look at the night sky. You who have been a reader know this. It is grounding and beautiful. It gives me balance when I need it the most. And I need the grounding now as much as ever. Last night I commented to Luis that the Moon was beautiful and was presaging bad weather. It had a halo around it. The halo is created by moisture in the air, high enough in the atmosphere to create a small rainbow surrounding the Moon. It's gorgeous but also explains why the Moon is invisible tonight, hidden by clouds. Luis was surprised - first he couldn't find it (I always know exactly where it is every day - a little scary. I also told everyone at the table on Friday night their hire dates... they were a little freaked out. Heh, heh, heh...); then he saw it and said, "Wow, there's a halo!" I also told him when you see a crescent Moon hanging high in the night sky, it is fiction. The crescent Moo...

I'm guilty. I gripe and complain and say that now the snow has gotten old. But then in the midst of our third snowstorm in as many weeks, I'm caught up in and blown away by how lovely and quiet it all is. In the midst of life and insanity is a ghostly but lovely world blanketed in cold fluffy snow. It is staggeringly lovely. All of the South Africans have bailed out of New Jersey to explore warmer climes; two are on a cruise ship through the Caribbean Seas, two re hiking through Arizona and the American Southwest and enjoying the desert views there. One has gone to Las Vegas and I don't recall what else is on the agenda. And my beloved friend, who loves to give me hugs, he is in either Las Vegas or has moved on to San Francisco (I did warn him that the Golden Gate Bridge is orange, not gold, in colour.) It's undoubtedly nice to be out in warmer climates when the area you live in gets nailed with snowstorms on a regular basis. But still, I can't help but appreciate t...

I was getting ready to leave the house for work when I found a big, beautiful bird hopping around Luis' office! He was lovely. I could not tell you what kind of bird, and maybe he was really a female, but whatever the make and model, he was really neat! I had left him hopping there, looking at the furniture and Luis, to get my camera. As I stepped into the hallway, the door was closed and Luis asked if he was out there. I looked around and suddenly said, "Yes!" as he'd come out of my office and was there looking at me. Before I could say anything else, he hopped to the side of my left foot and sat there, looking quite content. I really did try to get his photo, but my camera picked that moment to read "battery low" and steadfastly refused - several times - to take the image. It shut down everytime. But I stood there for a few minutes, grinning like an idiot, until Luis very gently picked the lovely creature up and let him out.

Always... I should say my best thinking is done anywhere I can't write it down. The shower? That is easily the highest qualifier... At least when I'm driving I can call the house number and leave myself a message with bulletpoints of what I'd like to write. So here I am, witting in front of the home computer, which underscores the fact that I need to purchase another new monitor, wrapped in a towel with wet legs, not getting ready to go visit my parents... But if I don't do this now, I won't remember later. I should move some money around and buy another monitor... But I will instead wait for Luis to return from far-away Omaha (he'll be on the 1400 flight out of Omaha to Houston, then wait a bit for his next flight out of Houston to arrive in New Jersey around 2200). Then he can come with me to Staples to select a new monitor that won't be broken. Back to what I was thinking about in the shower... I was shaving something, and thinking about the social graces...

Everything is shut down, the roads are all but impassable, there are wind gusts and some drifting of the perfect white snow falling. We are not even in the thick of it yet... It began snowing last night around 2000, but they were little tiny glittering particles, not the kind of snow that would pile up into staggering amounts of snow. I found myself thinking that once again they've botched the job and we were going to get nothing again, but at some point during the night the quality of the snow changed. And then the phone rang... at 0530, an hour I never want to hear the phone ring. Fortunately I'd gotten the heads up that I'd be getting the wee-hours call should the snow get out of hand. So I didn't answer the phone with, "Who's dead?" Instead, I groaned, "It's still dark outside." At least the voice on the other end laughed. Good man, good sense of humour, definitely a great combination. Always need to laugh at these things. We both had a g...

If it were ten people, each of whom had one plastic surgery that day, I would shiver a bit and then leave it alone. If it were something like having a mole or a birthmark that one did not like, I would not even shiver. I have had moles removed for health risk reasons, and I can certainly understand being self conscious about something right on one's face that either makes the owner uncomfortable about or that others ask about. OK, then this is the right thing to do. I mean one person having ten totally ego-driven surgeries in ONE DAY. My weekly sleaze, People Magazine , had in it as the main article a woman named Heidi Montag. I've never heard of her. Having now heard of her, I wish I hadn't. There is something really psychologically wrong with this woman. I am not a fan of my face and I know no one will offer me an opportunity to be in a movie or on the telly or certainly as a model. I have a Jay Leno chin (look at my drivers license or any image of me), a long face, etc. ...

Today was an odd day. It started poorly and ended (so far) well. I still have a stretch to go... (yes, I know, not as much as the rest of the crew but for me this is a stretch), but it is under 4 hours now. Counting down the time, sort of. I have my hero, Bill Engvall, on. He's a riot. He keeps the humour clean. He does refer to sex and body functions, but never uses words that I can't play at work. I love this man. I'd invite him to my workplace if I could. He loves the sport. But that's just my wishlist. Anyway, today... I got a lot of stuff done and went out for a drive. I have been itching to see the roads with the glorious autumn leaves. And they are glorious . Oh, my gods, it is staggering. And so I started out on the higher one and took lots of pictures and then headed around the usual loop to the low road. It's beautiful. It's staggering. It is just delightful. Today was the perfect day: perfect temperature, perfect light breeze, perfect sunshine with ju...

It is a grey, rainy, icky, stay-inside-and-read-a-book kind of day. What does one do when down? SHOP! I made a quick foray onto e-bay and started with candles. I love candles and of course I'm heartbroken that Illuminations has closed its doors. Not that I have been able to find some of the really old fragrances like Pear and Wasabi but there was a teeny ray of hope that maybe I could when they still were open. I found a couple of candles under Woodwick (new to me) and White Barn Candle Company, but nothing exciting. I skipped around then, looking briefly at office organisers, DVDs, etc. And then I typed in "crystal". Crystal brought up all sorts of stuff - bowls, jewelry, etc., but I realised that this was too general. So I typed in "flourite", and then got specifically flourite items, but again, most cut into gemstones or jewelry. Ah. So I typed in "flourite balls" and hit gold - or in this case, flourite! I did do some fast shopping - two beautiful ...

I know that the Perseids are an annual event and I can live with that. This means that should I live to be 98 and I am hale and hearty most of it, I have 75 shots to see it as an "adult" and several more as a child old enough to recall the magic and wonder of it. And if you live in the right place, you'll likely see it every year. Unless you are stymied by, of all things, the weather. This season has been exceptional in its ability to occlude more often than not a perfectly wonderful, clear sky. I've missed more full Moon views than not thanks to this delightfully cool, wet, overcast garbage and that I get 29 different times a year to see this! The crescent Moon has only been visible to me a couple of times since the spring. This month I managed one set of the Full Moon, and the days following - maybe three days - and since then, nothing. The Moon right now is just a blob of white light, not even defined enough to be round, through the thick haze. Once again, crushed...

It's been almost two weeks since Day One in Montana, but when I look at the images I took, all 354 of them, it all comes flooding back. People always wonder why I take so many images - two reasons: I love capturing great things and so I can remember things. I have a memory like a sieve, so having images makes it so much easier. I was up around 0545, but I probably wasn't completely adjusted to Mountain Time. I sat there and processed the previous day's images from the trip out. I checked my e-mails, played with Orion and Nova, and did other computer things. The light of the not yet rising sun was love ly, and the sun rises earlier and later... which sounds weird. The sun rose about ten minutes earlier than here (around 0535) but nestled in the mountains, it did not become visible until quite about later - around 0615. But the way it slowly lit up the mountains opposite the house was amazing. David and Donna got up around 0700 and we had a great breakfast of Almond Amaretto ...

I took images all month of the Moon in its many phases. I love seeing the Moon at all times, but somehow I only take it in its full phase, which is completely unfair. The Moon looks glorious at all times; when it is a sliver hanging low in the crepescular light of the coming day, when it is half-full and waxing towards the most amazing showing, and when its full beacon shines to light the entire night sky. So here it is. (I will tell you right now that it is very hard to get a good shot of it in its sliver phase! That was the best of several images.) On 4 April 2009, I took this image. It was easy to get, and the Moon looks gorgeous. It looks kind of like a weird bowl that was rolling about. It was waxing, heading inexorably to its full stage. I've never ridden on a night where we looked at the waxing quarter-stage Moon and said to one another, "Uh-oh... it's gonna be a busy night..." For some reason, the Moon wasn't really playing nice on 11 April 2009 and it wa...

Dear Chadwicks, I am writing to you in regards to your catalogue of late April 2009. Just a few small pointers. When selling clothes to "women", the nice way that the clothing industry sizes "plus-sized" women, you might want to show a plus-sized woman in your ultra slim tummy-control pants (pages 24 and 25). Show us - in this case, your target audience, how it slims and controls the tummy. The size 0 or 2 woman wearing those pants is not a selling point. Take it from a plus-sized woman, this is not convincing. I will admit that I plan to purchase some. However, if I did not work for a private club I'd never crawl out of my EMT pants or jeans. It is your good fortune that I work for a place that demands I look at least semi-presentable fashion. This is a wonderful job, so I grudgingly agree to it. These pants come in my size and look more than semi-presentable. But even so, this is a good suggestion. Fat women don't respond to skinny women selling tummy-con...

As you recall, I was falling asleep watching the 12 April episode of Celebrity Apprentice and so did finish writing about it. That was past the mid-way point, with about 45 minutes left to go. The contestants all left the boardroom and Joan talked to Annie about how she did not say what she had told Joan the previous night. She did not. When asked by Donald about what she thought of Brandy, she made some sort of spineless, wishy-washy statement about her not being... it was some kind of poker analogy (I guess) but it was not a strong statement and did not convey any real intent to anyone. I guess I should back track and get that comment... Oh, yes. The losing team had to explain the loss. At one point, George (I don't remember his last name but he has worked for Donald Trump for years and has been on the show when it was just The Apprentice and was a long, on-air job interview for candidates to prove their worth to take over a building or something of that nature in Mr. Trump...