Kristine Hjulstand from Norway was one of the magicians performing on Saturday night at Gathering for Gardner 11. It was not only her first performance at Gathering for Gardner, but also her first in the US. She opened with a delightful performance piece set to classical music, pulling scarves of color out of painter’s palette…
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Adieu and Farewell Collage Video
Late on Tuesday night, I received an email from my favorite go-to place for exercise videos, Collage Video, announcing they were closing down and were putting their entire inventory on sale, with all sales final. Like most of their other fans, I am deeply sorry to see them go. Though they were unable to compete…
The More Ways We Have to Communicate, the Less We Communicate at All
We live in what should be a golden age of communication. At no time before, have there been so many ways to get in touch with one another. If I need to ask you a question, I can email you; text you; call you on the go; make a free international call via VOip programs…
Black Friday Begins on Thursday
Several years ago, Peter and I got up extremely early on the day after Thanksgiving to check out the “door buster” sales. It was fun, and we got some great deals, but it’s not something we’ve been inclined to do. And I’ve been chagrined as Black Friday has edged its way into Thanksgiving Day itself….
Obamacare and the Federal Exchanges vs. Local and Community Based Health Care
After years of argument, the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) which was clumsily shoved through Congress in 2010 is out in a form which consumers can review it and judge for themselves if they truly are getting more care for less. For the 14 years before my husband took a day job with employer-provided insurance,…
Canada and Me
Oh, Canada! Lately I’ve had a lot of dealings with the place, just over the phone, which have led me to the impressions that Toronto is a nice place, albeit with some bad neighborhoods, and Montreal is a Hellmouth. Until 2008, I had never even set foot in Canada, despite the fact that I’ve travelled…
In Search of a Better Hamster Ball Design
Last night, at 1 a.m. in the morning, my husband and I were down on our knees calling out “Milo!” and shining flashlights into every dark, and possible hidey-hole in our living room, looking for our runaway hamster. Of every place we looked, the last possible place for him to be (barring an untimely death…
A Taste of Lake County’s Wines
When we booked a week on Clear Lake in northern California, we expected to enjoy nature and the lake. What we didn’t expect to find was an up-and-coming wine scene. As we gradually found out, winemaking is relatively new to Lake County. Most of the wineries we encountered were established about a decade ago, maybe…
Electromagnetic Signals from Air Fields Screw with Auto Sensors
A few months ago, Peter was stymied by the fact that the tire pressure light on his 2010 Ford Escape lways seemed to switch on. He carefully checked the tire pressure, which was fine. He took his car to the Ford dealership, which confirmed the tire pressure was fine. They reset the light. And then,…
The Last Bookstore in LA
After our visit to UCLA, my family decided it would be interesting to visit a bookstore in LA. I scoffed at the very notion: Los Angelenos do not read. They watch movies, they write screenplays, but they do not read. And, therefore, I insisted, an LA bookstore is a chimera. Nonetheless, they used Yelp and…