Bookworm Room

Patrick Thornburg, through a loving essay and some tragic photographs, takes on a a visit to a small Iowa town that may not rise again.

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Oh, my gosh!  Was it a busy weekend.  I’ve got lots ot tell, including giving my impressions of the self-defense class I took, and a quick review of WALL*E.
There are, however, still a few barriers between me and blogging.  I have to tidy the house for the cleaning ladies (they’re here to clean, and clean [...]

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Sadly, since my husband is incommunicado, I haven’t yet had the chance to tell him this story, so I’m still sitting under the sword of Damocles.
On the way home from a swim meet, I stopped to get gas.  The entry way into the gas station was very narrow.  I saw that there was a post [...]

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What with heat waves, smoke filled air (from semi-local fires), and wind storms, I’ve been having fairly constant migraines for the past week, and if that’s not a drag, I don’t know what is.  I have learned something this past week, though.  No matter what it feels like, your eyeballs don’t really explode, nor do [...]

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W”B”S sent me this marvelous old photograph, taken at Camp Dodge, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1918.  Click on the thumbnail to enlarge:

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It seems I’m not the only one who looks back on the early 1980s as a good era musically.  So, for fun, here are a few other songs.
First, Philip Bailey and Phil Collins with 1985’s Easy Lover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xY_cPenSs

Second, Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called to Say I Love You from 1984:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY45DkaP9Ls

Third, and last, in this trip to [...]

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Do you believe in love at first sight?

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Just wanted to give you a heads up that there is a new site taking on the Digg crowd (which has pretty much become an all Progressive forum).  It’s called R-igg.  Check it out here and feel free to promote my posts there, if you desire.  All you have to do is register, and then [...]

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My new car has XM radio, and I like the decades stations.  On the rare occasion that I find myself in the car alone, if there’s nothing good on talk radio (no Dennis Prager, no Hugh Hewitt, no Michael Medved), I immerse myself in the music of the 40s through the 80s.  My personal music [...]

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David Suissa has created a series of ads to remind people of all the marvelous contributions Israel has made to the world during its short time as a country (and, impressively, a country perpetually under siege).
I think it’s time to create some ads for the Muslim and Arab world too (click on thumbnails to enlarge):

Hat [...]

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Am I the only person who finds it incredibly irritating when there is a long, long line to discover that the person in front of me, who must have known for quite a while that she was going to pay by check, takes out her check book and starts filling in the information only after [...]

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We had dinner with a group of neighbors yesterday, which was a lot of fun.  I have a new grill, which was pretty exciting.  Growing up in the fog belt — with European parents, yet — I’d never grilled before and had only been to a few BBQs in my life.  When my husband bought [...]

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My McAfee virus protection stopped working.  I finally discovered why:  the latest updates conflict with my Norton Ghost, which is my computer back-up system.  That puts me between a rock and hard place, doesn’t it?  Aargh!

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I was raised on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Princess and Secret Garden books — but not just any versions.  The ones that I read and re-read zealously, and that I still own, are the ones with the beautiful Tasha Tudor drawings (versions that, interestingly enough, are not available through Amazon).  I also have on a [...]

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In my neck of the woods, morning is usually a cool time.  Today, at 6:30, it was 80 degrees.  We’re simply not equipped here for that kind of heat.  My house has no A/C and, worse, no cross-ventilation.  Unless a true wind starts blowing (in which case the whole house starts rattling if windows are [...]

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One Democrat Republican (thanks, Judy Rose) takes to the floor of the House and explains what the majority is really saying:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EcQ03qRE1s

Hat tip:  Danny Lemieux

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This guy, Bill Kipp, will be giving lessons in my community soon and, barring some unforeseen event, I plan to be there.  What’s so fascinating is that, despite being a black belt and a Marine, Kipp too was a sheep — something he knew for a fact because of the situations in which he found [...]

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I apologize for not blogging today.  It was a combination of things.  I got a rush project from DQ, who was blindsided by a really dirty, last-minute attack from opposing counsel; I had my son home all day (no camp plans today); I had martial arts; and it was hot.  In many ways, it’s the [...]

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I heard about the man who stomped his two year old to death (kicking him more than 100 times) before being killed by the police.  What I hadn’t realized is that a flock of sheep witnessed the horror:
The town of Turlock and much of the rest of the nation was shocked when a 27-year-old man [...]

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Time for an update on the shift from communism to capitalism in my house.  Since Sunday, when I put the plan into effect, the kids have tidied the whole house, folded (and put away) eight baskets of laundry, organized all the DVDs, cleaned out both the large and the small pantries, and read several hundred [...]

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The Glittering Eye has tagged me with this one and it sounds like fun, so I’m having a run with it. The rules are strict:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end [...]

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I was truly saddened to read that Cyd Charisse has died.  She was a wonderful star of the Golden Age of MGM musicals, whether playing the lovely ballerina in Band Wagon, the dancing gangster’s moll in Singing in the Rain, the Russian commisar in Silk Stockings, or any of the other roles, large and small, [...]

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I’m happy to announce that Terry Trippany, my invaluable Web guru (who blogs at Webloggin), has done some tweaking to the hyperlinks, both in the posts and in the comments, to make them easier to see.  By the way, if you don’t see any change right off the bat, you may have to clear your [...]

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Two of my favorite bloggers, Scott D and Turkeyhead, both of whom blog at Scott’s Conservative News and Commentary, are back after a ridiculously long hiatus. Go check out their three new posts, which take nice aim both at the Supreme Court and (sigh) at John McCain and, by your presence alone, encourage them [...]

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The National Science Foundation describes itself as follows:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” With an annual budget of about $6.06 billion, we are the funding source for [...]

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