All Things Artisanal

     I enjoyed the "Rock Center" report about all things artisanal.  If you didn't see it, here it is: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/52137360#52137360

     Here's how I weigh in:

I'll pass on things artisanal
Like Miller's with its fizz 'n' all
Shampoo bars that fight friz 'n' all
Are the perks pretend or actual?

There is a world divisional
Concerning things atisanal
'Cause pricing's not congenial
For budgets, it's abys-i-mal.

It leaves me feeling quizzical
Wallets without residual
Mr., Mrs., Ms. - y'alls
Overspend to say, "It's artisanal."

I'm not sure about Miller's flavors.  It looks like mainly root beer and ginger soda.   Rob Gwilt of Clyde, Texas makes prickly pear, lemon basil, and dandelion burdock flavored sodas.   http://www.reporternews.com/news/2013/mar/26/finding-his-fizz-clyde-man-brews-artisan-sodas/ 

People used soap or shampoo bars to wash their hair before modern detergent shampoo was invented in the 1930's.  Going back to shampoo bars means you'll have to wet your hair and the bar,  lather up your hair, rinse, lather again, rinse again, then rinse a vinegar solution through hair, condition, and rinse a final time.  I'll stick with Pert®. 

Mast Brothers has to charge $40.00 for five chocolate bars (plus $10 shipping)  because they sail an artisanal boat to the Dominican Republic to get their organically grown cocoa beans.  They also design their wrappers in-house and have them printed nearby.  http://nymag.com/news/features/artisanal-brooklyn-2012-4/ 
Milky Way®, anyone?

The "V" Word

     Maybe the Reformed Whores have planted my mind in the gutter.  More likely, it was "Two Broke Girls."  Mike and I watch the show, we both (I said both) laugh, then Mike complains that they make too many sexual jokes.  Specifically, the girls, Max and Caroline, use the word vagina as much as possible to get a laugh.  Check out the following clips.  Soap is compared to a vagina. Caroline's bed is compared to a vagina.  Max's vagina has a reaction to a rude customer.  Finally, Max concedes she might use the word vagina too often.










           

Redeemed Strumpets, Rehabilitated Harlots, Uplifted Floozies

     I just discovered a couple of ladies who call themselves Reformed Whores.  http://www.reformedwhores.com/.  Now that's a catchy name.  They are comediennes/singers/actresses.  Marie Cecile Anderson is the brunette http://www.mariececileanderson.com/ and Katy Frame http://www.katyframe.com/ is the blonde.  These girls know if you want to make someone laugh, you sing about things that make them uncomfortable - things like one night stands, poop, and drunk dialing.  My days of drunk dialing are long gone, but pooping is a daily reality.

Wineries in the Gettysburg Area - Day Three (Continued)

     Once you've had enough Civil War history, it's time to visit the wineries near Gettysburg.  There are three vineyards in the area - Adams County Winery, Hauser Estate Winery, and Reid's Orchard and Winery.  Reid's Orchard operates a tasting room in Gettysburg.  We stopped there on the first day.

The Gettysburg tasting room is located in the house where Jenny Wade was born.  She was the only civilian casualty of the Civil War.  Reid's makes a wine, Jennie's House White,  which was Mike's favorite.

Cheers!

The wineries sponsor all sorts of events - concerts, dancing,  lady's nights, and fund raisers with catered meals.

     We visited Hauser Estate to wrap things up on the third day of our trip.  The winery sits atop a hill.  The views from the tasting room are beautiful.  We enjoyed five samples for a $2.00 fee. Samples of hard cider were free.  A huge glass of wine costs $5.00.  We bought a glass of our favorite, along with some locally made cheese, and watched the pouring rain.

Hauser Estate

There were 360° views.  Beautiful!  

     We'll have to save Adams County Winery for another time.  You don't have to visit France's route de vin or go all the way to Napa to experience wine touring.  These wineries are part of the Mason-Dixon Wine Trail - twenty wineries and one distillery located in south central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland.  http://www.masondixonwinetrail.com/  I'm smelling the bouquet of another vacation.

Gettysburg in the Rain - Day Three

     It poured on our third day, so we went to the visitor center.  We watched a twenty minute film and sat for mini-movies as we moved through the museum displays.  We also viewed the cyclorama, a circular painting done by French artist Paul Philippoteaux.  Wikipedia says this about the painting:

Philippoteaux became interested in cycloramas and, in collaboration with his father, created The Defence of the Fort d'Issy in 1871. Other successful works included Taking of Plevna (Turko-Russian War), the Passage of the Balkans, The Belgian Revolution of 1830, Attack in the Park, The Battle of Kars, The Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and the Derniere Sortie. He was commissioned by a group of Chicago investors in 1879 to create the Gettysburg Cyclorama. He spent several weeks in April 1882 at the site of the Gettysburg Battlefield to sketch and photograph the scene, and extensively researched the battle and its events over several months. Local photographer William H. Tipton created a series of panoramic photographs shot from a wooden tower erected along present-day Hancock Avenue. The photos, pasted together, formed the basis of the composition. Philippoteaux also interviewed several survivors of the battle, including Union generals Winfield S. Hancock, Abner Doubleday, Oliver O. Howard, and Alexander S. Webb, and based his work partly on their recollections.

Philippoteaux enlisted a team of five assistants, including his father until his death, to create the final work. It took over a year and a half to complete. The finished painting was nearly 100 yards long and weighed six tons. When completed for display, the full work included not just the painting, but numerous artifacts and sculptures, including stone walls, trees, and fences. The effect of the painting has been likened to the nineteenth century equivalent of an IMAX theater.

     The painting hanging at Gettysburg is 27 feet high and 359 feet in circumference.  With the props set up in the foreground and the lighting, the 3-D effect is impressive.

No flash photography is permitted in the cyclorama viewing area.  This picture is from Google images.

     The original visitor center, completed in 1962, was designed by Richard Nuetra.  It was low and modern, topped by a concrete cylinder that housed the cyclorama.  http://www.architecturaldigest.com/blogs/daily/2013/01/richard-neutra-cyclorama-gettysburg-national-military-park

This building was nicknamed "Starship Enterprise."

      In 1999, the National Park Service decided the modern structure was out of keeping with the context of the Civil War.  After lots of disagreement, the Park Service was permitted to bulldoze the original structure and build a new center in the 1860's style.  The new center reopened in 2008.

Today's Visitor Center 

Touring the Battlefield on a Segway - Day Two

     There was rain in the forecast for the end of the week, so we decided to tour the battlefield on our second day.  Why bike or take the car when you can rent a Segway Personal Transporter?  We had some concerns that we might be too old to learn to operate the machine, but we passed our training with flying colors.  Segway Tours  http://www.segtours.com/ provided us with an escort and a recorded audio tour.  We spent three hours touring the main battlefield, reviewing our history lessons, and turning a few heads.

Segway Bev

Me and Our Escort, Jesse

Cannons and Caissons 

A member of our group reflects on the site of Pickett's charge. 

     After the battlefield, we went on foot to the Gettysburg National Cemetery.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_National_Cemetery  There are over 3,500 Union soldiers buried here.  Almost 1,000 of them are unknown.  The last civil war soldier was interred in 1997. His skeleton was discovered in 1996 during an excavation.

Taking Gettysburg in Three Days - Day One

     Mike loves history, so we decided to go to Gettysburg.  This year is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, so the town has big plans for July 1st through 3rd.  We were happy to go early and avoid the July crowds.  We walked around town and checked out some shops and a museum on the first day of our three day get-away.

This was the view from our room in the Gettysburg Hotel.  http://www.historichotels.org/hotels-resorts/the-gettysburg-hotel-est1797

  

Gourds, gourds, and more gourds.  This store sold bird house gourds, butterfly house gourds, and gourds that didn't do anything except sit around.

Good to know.

Abe Lincoln and Two Tourists. 

Giving President Lincoln My Full Attention.

     We got the lay of the land, and we scheduled our adventure for Day #2 - touring the battlefield by segway.
     

You Spent Money on What?

     Did you see "Men Who Stare at Goats" starring George Clooney?  I thought it was pretty funny.  It became less funny when I found out it was more or less true.  Our tax dollars paid for experiments which involved the paranormal, specifically, killing a goat by staring at it.  Some idiot actually thought humans could develop such powers as mind reading, walking through walls, and killing stares.  This same idiot convinced other idiots to fund research into the impossible.
     The Clooney movie was based on a documentary made by Jon Ronson called "Crazy Rulers of the World."  http://www.jonronson.com/crazy_rulers.html  Ronson told the story of Lt. Colonel Jim Channon, a Viet Nam veteran, who went on a two year walk-about (at government expense), during which he immersed himself in the human potential movement.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Potential_Movement  Once he was fully enlightened, Channon wrote up his findings and presented them to our military leaders.  Joe McMoneagle, a retired U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command employee, says Channon's report made the military think out of the box.  I'm all for thinking out of the box, but when the powers-that-be start spending my money, I want them to remember what every three year old knows.  Slamming into a wall will leave you crying for your mama because walls are solid.
     Mike just told me the F.B.I. spent a lot of time and money back in 1963 trying to decide if the Kingsmen song, "Louie, Louie," was obscene.  http://living.msn.com/life-inspired/the-daily-dose-blog-post?post=1a9c75ec-0e2c-4f0e-87ae-437db548fcb2  You decide -

                                                Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.

Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi
Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.

A fine girl, who waited for me.
I catch a ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone.
I wondered when I'm gonna make it home.

Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.
Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi
Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.

Three nights and days I sailed the sea.
I think of the girl constantly.
On the ship, I dream she there.
I smell the rose that's in her hair.

Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.
Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi
Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.

I see Jamaican moon above.
See the girl I'm thinking of.
I take her in my arms and then
Say I'll never leave again.

Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.
Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi
Louie Louie, oh baby, I gotta go.

Oh, I gotta go now.
Uh-huh I gotta go.

  

     I thought examples of crazy government waste were deep, dark secrets that slipped out from time to time.  Not these days.  The Republican senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, publishes an annual list of frivolous government expenditures.   The 2012 list included grants for Moroccan pottery classes, a campaign to increase caviar consumption, and a promotion of beauty products for cats and dogs.  http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=b7b23f66-2d60-4d5a-8bc5-8522c7e1a40e
     Senator Coburn is now in a ticklish position.  There will be a lot of money going to Oklahoma after the recent tornadoes.  I hope he uses his watchful eye to make sure that money is used properly.  And if some of it is used to throw a Wreck-It Ralph theme party when the schools reopen, look the other way.     

Retro Dish Towels

     I love everything about the 60's - except the way men and women behaved toward each other. Boo, hiss to those Mad Men relationships.  Hooray to the upswept hair-dos, the dresses, and the dish towels.
     Who doesn't love a french twist?

HIgh

 

Low

                                      

Messy

Fancy

And Orange

     Dresses from the 1960's covered a multitude of sins.  Those big skirts made waists look small while covering baby bellies and big butts.  Shifts were comfortable, forgiving of spare tires, and sassy if worn short enough.

     A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning out some stuff, and I found one of my mother's old dish towels (or tea towels, as  she called them).  I recalled the nesting mixing bowls - one yellow, one red, one green, one blue - that coordinated with the striped colors on the towel.  "You can't get those towels these days," I thought.  Then I looked online.

     Fabric Depot, located in Portland, Oregon, calls itself "the largest, most complete, locally owned fabric store in the country."  https://www.fabricdepot.com/  They sell 100% cotton toweling by the yard.  The fabric is 16" wide with hemmed edges.  All you have to do is cut a towel length (29 inches is a good length) and put a 3/8" hem on each end.  Two and one half yards of fabric makes three towels with just a slight bit of waste.  Remember to pre-shrink in hot water.  

There were several patterns featuring roses and cherries.

Also, lots of stripes and grids like the towels Mom had.

Gifts for retro loving friends.

Let's Hear It for the People Who Market Cherrios!

     Mike and I saw the new Cherrios commercial this week, the one that features a mixed race family, and we loved it.  "It's about time," we said.  Here's the spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYofm5d5Xdw

     The commercial aired on Monday and went up on YouTube on Wednesday.  Today, I read that some hateful, small-minded bigots out there left their racist remarks in the YouTube comments area.  Kudos to the Cherrios folks for refusing to pull the ad.  Cherrios is not the first product to feature mixed race relationships. Check out these other spots:

Dodge Charger - Brother Is Attacted to Sister's Friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3d8cs5xBIY

Serta - One of the Couples Is Caucasian/Afro-American, One Is Caucasian/Asia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd13SipjWrw

Old Navy - Mixed Race Flirting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkajRip9zkQ&list=PL36DD087D3C688FB7

Ikea - Red Hot Bi-Racial Love and Broken Crockery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52FVcN-yKzo

     I'm glad the Cherrios people disabled the YouTube comments feature.  Any time you pull the plug on a racist, everybody wins.