Category Archives: Media

2023, Business, Media, TV, Uncategorized

I Can See Clearly Now…

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I know that I’ve probably mentioned how much I distrust ads.  But every now and then I am surprised  — in a nice way.

Reading glasses.  I’ve struggled for a couple of years with nighttime reading.  As soon as it gets a little dark, it was hard to read – print just a little too small for comfort.  In July, after finally figuring out all the ins and outs of Medicare (OK, SOME of the ins and outs of Medicare… I’m pretty sure that Medicare is set up so that nobody truly ever figures it out…and if they do, then it changes), I decided to get my eyes checked and to get glasses.  My old glasses were granny glasses and bifocals and completely useless.  Even with bigger lenses, I didn’t want bifocals again.  My eye doctor seemed to think it was a fine idea to get two pairs of glasses – one for reading and one for driving at night. 

I’ve seen too many Warby Parker ads on tv and wasn’t interested until a friend of mine highly recommended them.  I did like the price point but didn’t want to do the “five pairs in the mail” thing so I actually went to a Warby Parker store.  It was amazing.  Staff greeted me, I had someone assisting me within a minute.  They didn’t push me toward the expensive stuff (even on Medicare, I was on a budget), and weren’t trying to rush me out the door.  They measured using a phone app, did up the paperwork and I was walking out the door literally twenty minutes later.  The reading glasses showed up at my house five days later and the driving glasses a few days after that.  I had to take the driving glasses in for an adjustment; this was also handled very quickly and very pleasantly.  Honestly it took me longer to find a parking spot at the Galleria than it did to get this done. 

The reading glasses are amazing to me.  I suppose I could have just gotten cheap readers from the drugstore but I’m happy with my Warby Parker experience and love the new glasses! 

Recommendations, ads, influencers?  How do you choose new products?

2023, home, Media, Uncategorized

Keeping Up w/ the Kards……

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I got the first calendar of the holiday season in the mail yesterday.  It’s pretty – scenic destinations from all over – but useless.  Nobody on the planet needs additional calendars less than I do – I know that you all know this.

My most expensive calendar is my Daytimer.  I was actually given this portfolio-type calendar by my boss over 30 years ago.  After he had gotten a good annual review, he presented his three employees (me, Alan, Ann) with this gift saying that he could not have gotten a good review if we weren’t all doing good work.  As you can see from the frayed edges, it’s the original binder but I do spend the money every year to update the innards.  In the various pockets I keep stamps, address labels, deposited checks and my old vaccination card (before I started carrying around the covid card in my purse).   It also contains an address book that I update every couple of years.

Every month I do all my birthday/anniversary/occasion cards at once – on average about 20 cards a month.   I pick them out, stamp the appropriate greetings/sayings, sign them, seal them, affix a stamp to  them and stick on the address label and then sort them into my Daytimer for the week they need to be mailed.  That’s why a lot of the time, my Daytimer looks like it does in the photo above.  If I do cards for a holiday, I usually stack those on my dresser next to the Daytimer.  Right now I have Thanksgiving cards and National Origami Day cards stacked up. (I have to justify all these stamps/dies/papers you know!)

I’m pretty sure that I could devise a cheaper system for storing cards that are waiting to be mailed but my current system works great and I do have a sentimental attachment to the Daytimer.  My boss back then was a fabulous person to have as a boss – I was sorry when he left the company.  Alan, Ann and I weren’t long with the company after that. 

I’m sending the scenic calendar to work with YA – free stuff goes fast when left on a lunchroom table!

What’s a freebie that you look forward to?

2023, Gatherings, History, Media, Uncategorized

Balloon Disaster

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We had a lovely time in Cleveland, OH, last week. The conference I attended was actually interesting. We also met up with a dear graduate school friend who lives in Ohio. She is originally from Newfoundland, participates in competitive ballroom dancing, and lives with 16 cats.

Cleveland was nice, and we could see the lake and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from our hotel. Cleveland has had its struggles, though. It is sometimes referred to as the mistake by the lake. The Cuyahoga River caught fire here years ago. Nothing beats the balloon disaster, though.

In 1986, the Cleveland United Way proposed a fundraiser by trying to beat the world record for the number of helium balloons released at one time. Disney held the record. The United Way released 1.4 million helium balloons not far from where our hotel stands. They used substandard helium, the winds were uncooperative, and the balloons didn’t float very high and then came to earth. Balloons covered the roadways and the lake. Roads were obscured and people crashed their cars. Two fishermen who went missing in the lake couldn’t be located because of all the balloons. They drowned. Horses ate the balloons and also died. The United Way had to pay millions in damages. The Guinness Book of World Records stopped measuring balloon releases.

Any good disaster stories? What are your favorite disaster movies? How many cats is too many?

2023, Family, Media, TV

R.I.P. David McCallum

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When I was a kid, we had a tv but we weren’t a big tv-watching family.  Except for Sunday night.  From 6-7 was Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, then from 7-8 was Bonanza and then 8-9 was the special treat – The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  Normally that kind of show wasn’t something my folks encouraged, especially since it wasn’t over until 9 p.m.!  Looking back I’m sure this was more for my father than for us kids, but since I benefited from it, I never questioned it.

David McCallum played Illya Kuryakin, an agent for U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement).  The show was written primarily for Robert Vaughn who was a bigger star, but millions of starry-eyed pre-teens and teens made David into a popular star.  The producers promoted him to co-star pretty quickly.  I had a massive crush on him – I didn’t even realize until years later that he was Scottish, not Russian.  I’ve re-watched all of the episodes over the years and David did a pretty credible job with the Russian accent.

I always enjoyed seeing him in some role or other, especially when he played the bad guy.  I’m not a big NCIS fan so didn’t seem him in that role but I knew he was there.  Good looking to the end.

I think I’ll have to look up The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to see if I can watch it online… would be fun to see him again in what I think of as his signature role.  (Feel free to disagree with me if you want.)

Do you have any favorite spy movies/novels?

2023, Fantasy, Gatherings, Media, Mysteries

And Then There Were None…

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The news these days isn’t usually much of a laughing matter.  And then, every now and then…..

Two weeks ago, in Chapel St. Leonard’s, a seaside resort village on England’s east coast, a ritual mass murder was reported to police.  Bodies were seen inside the Seascape Café by passersby.  Unfortunately when the police arrived, the bodies were mysteriously gone; turns out the passersby had witnessed the end of a yoga class, when all the participants were doing a final yoga meditation.

I couldn’t find any comments from those who had reported the mass murder but the yoga instructor took it very seriously and made sure that everyone in the community was reassured on her Facebook page that the group is not a “mad cult or crazy club”. 

What kind of activity do you prefer at a seaside resort village?

2023, Media, Movies, Theatre

Arsenic & Old Lace

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On Friday night my BFF, Sara, and I went to see Arsenic & Old Lace at Theatre in the Round over on the West Bank.  This was Sara’s birthday present from me….we decided a few years back to give each other experiences instead of things for our birthdays.  She chose Arsenic from a list of plays showing this fall.  I was looking forward to it; I’ve seen the 1944 A&O starring Cary Grant and Boris Karloff several times and was interested in how the play would measure up.

I haven’t been to Theatre in the Round for many years.  Actually except for theatre that has been gifted to me, I’ve hardly been to any theatre in years. (Single parenthood kind of whoops the-evening-entertainment-that-costs-money craving out of you.)  When I first moved to the Twin Cities, I did volunteer ushering there for a couple of plays but full-time work while my wasband was searching for a job wore me down and I needed my nights back.

The production on Friday was quite nice.  The entire play takes places in the living/dining room of the Brewster sisters; no-nonsense set and props (like the sisters) without too much bric-a-brac to pull your attention away.  Lighting was pretty straight forward (nothing fancy like I see in Ben’s photos) and the sound was very good.  If the actors were mic’ed, I couldn’t tell; we were in the third row and didn’t have any trouble hearing all the dialogue.

Casting was superb!  Not that easy when one of the actors needs to resemble Teddy Roosevelt and another absolutely has to look like Boris Karloff (there are repeated mentions of this in the script).  I was a little worried that that these two would be weak links, hired for their looks, but they were both great.  Jonathan (the Boris look-alike) was particularly good.  Both Brewster sisters were excellent; Abby had a great way of waving her arms to punctuate her lines that was very effectives.  And a shout-out to the young woman who played Officer Brophy; she really sparkled in her role.

I was easily able to put aside my Cary Grant memories and enjoy the play on its merits.  It was very funny and a couple of times I laughed enough to cry.  The woman behind me snorted a few times! 

If you’re in the Twin Cities and up for a great night of theatre and comedy, I highly recommend it.  I think it’s running for a few more weeks.

Tell me about a favorite theatre experience you’ve had!

2023, home, Media, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Scram, Scam!

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Over the past couple of weeks I have received emails purportedly from our internet and landline provider warning me over a variety of false circumstances like having too many emails in storage, and our automated payment not going through. Yesterday I got one warning me that our internet would be disconnected if I didn’t pay our over due bill of $689. I knew in my head that this was a scam, but just to make sure I contacted our provider and found that we owed no money at all.

I also received voice mail messages recently from a law firm in Minnesota and a Disability advocate firm in Minnesota for “Charlotte” asking me to phone them back regarding my disability claim. I looked the numbers up on Google and they are definite scams. Husband has been getting messages on his phone from some bogus dentist office about a missed appointment. I know that they hope we phone them to tell them they have mead a mistake so that they can further ensnare us and get our SS numbers and bank account numbers. We just delete them and block the numbers. Their attempts seem to be getting more sophisticated, though. I wonder how less tech savvy folks manage to not get fooled.

Have you ever been scammed or know of anyone who has? What do you think a fitting punishment would be for these people?

2023, Fantasy, Media, Mysteries, Travel

You Gotta Be Kidding Me…

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I don’t spend much time looking at “the best things to buy” kinds of online ads, but yesterday afternoon, while lazing around watching re-runs of Columbo, I clicked on a “Unusual Items that Everybody Wants” lists.  Not sure what I was thinking.

The first item that made my jaw drop was a wristband that you use when you wash your face… to catch any water drips before they run down your arm.  Not sure why this is needed in life unless everybody washes their face differently than I do.

The next items that stopped me in my track was the “purse organizer” (above).  My very first thought was “who has 8 purses”?  Silly question since I sleep in a room next to someone who most likely have more than 8.  I’m sure she’s not alone.  Me?  One purse for everyday use and one fabric “State Fair” bag with a turtle on it that is the perfect size for what we need to take to the fair (money holder, coupon booklet, collapsible cookie holder, aspirin, address labels…).   If we weren’t State Fair aficionados, I would just have one purse.

My second thought was how in heaven’s name would you explain either of these items to someone living in the Middle Ages?  This was followed by a huge number of things that I can’t imagine trying to explain.  If you are suddenly transported to the year 1435, you probably shouldn’t mention ANYTHING about the times in which we live.  It’s a perfect way to end up on the 1435 version of the loony bin.  It never goes well in any time travel book I’ve ever read.

What would be the hardest thing to explain about our world to King Henry VI?

2023, books, Family, Food, home, Media, Uncategorized

The Curator

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We find recipes from numerous internet sources, and are rarely purchasing cookbooks these days. I subscribe to the The New York Times Food app, and that has tons of great recipes as well. We like to have paper copies of the recipes, however, and a week doesn’t go by that we aren’t running recipes off on the printer.

Husband loves putting the recipes in plastic slip covers and filing them in their respective three ring binders. He has the binders labeled. There is one large binder devoted solely to rye breads and sourdoughs. I am not allowed to rearrange the binders. That is his role.

When a sufficient number of new recipes have accumulated on the buffet, Husband puts them in their binders, culling older recipes we either didn’t like or never made in the first place. There are fewer and fewer of those. His devotion to the recipes does not extend to our bank and tax papers, however, and it is my thankless task to organize those.

How do you store your recipes? What is your filing system for important papers? What kind of a librarian or museum curator would you have been?

2023, Media, News, Uncategorized

What’s In The News?

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I have lived in my current town since 1987. It is a fairly small community in an isolated area, and over the 36 year we have lived here, I have come to know lots of people in town and in the communities in the surrounding region. I can tell where many people live or grew up just by knowing their last names. I also know the family histories of many people here through my work as a mental health professional at a regional human service center. There are scads of large, Roman Catholic families out here, and everyone seems to be related to or connected with everyone else.

One of the first thing I do every day when I get to work is check out the on-line jail roster at the regional correctional center in town. It is updated daily. Our town and the small towns around us have a multicounty facility where anyone in our region who gets arrested is incarcerated. This is partly nosiness as well as important information to have if anyone I am currently working with or a member of their family has got into a spot of trouble with the law. They even have the mugshots and information about the arrests and charges. The facility holds about 50 people. I have recognized as many as six people at one time on the roster.

The next thing I do is to check the websites of the two funeral homes in town to see who died. This is pure nosiness, but in a small community it is important information to know what families are grieving and/or if I have to go to a funeral soon. World affairs often take a back seat to local news in my day to day life. I am considering subscribing on-line to the New York Times just to broaden my news horizons. I already subscribe to their cooking app, so I think I get a discount on the news sections. We have the Rock County Star Herald (Luverne, MN’s paper) and the Bismarck Tribune delivered to the house.

Where do you go to for news? Subscribe to any news sources? Do you have a paper delivered to your house or apartment?