I’ve been slowly replacing my soaps, lotions and cleaning supplies with more simply concocted and natural versions of the same. If you are doing the same and want to get more information (and/or freak yourself out), check this out:
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics works to eliminate dangerous chemicals linked to adverse health impacts from cosmetics and personal care products.
On this day in History, April Fools tradition popularized on Apr 01, 1700. ….Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1.
Keep Calm and Carry On was printed on a motivational poster, one of three, designed by the British government’s Ministry of Information for the second world war (Wikipedia). The original keep calm poster wasn’t actually widely circulated, yet after it’s rediscovery it became a hot new design trend. I got myself a Keep Calm poster and happily posted it in my kitchen. I was dealing with a crisis, and it was an oddly comforting cheer to keep going every day. Then it birthed a never ending flow of imitations:
And then my crisis ended. By the time I saw ‘Keep Calm and Chive On’ I was done with it. I wanted people to stop. I joked that I wanted to replace my poster with a ‘Panic and Run Around Screaming’ even though it would only add to the flood. Then there were even more. There are even multiple poster generators where you can create your own Keep Calm posters. There is a Keep Calm poster for every fandom, every foody, every crafter and every holiday. We are reaching critical mass.
There are plenty of other WWII motivational type posters to choose from should you need a little revving up. And, then there is always the possibility of making something completely new. What a concept!
Before my blueray player decided it didn’t like Netflix any longer I was enjoying Miss Fisher’s Mysteries. More than once, the credits started to roll and the accompanying song was delightful and fresh in a way that 1920s radio mixes are new and fresh. Being a popular show, of course the soundtrack is available commercially, however, I suspected that a lot of the songs would be freely available courtesy of the Internet Archive. I was right, and I made you a little mix of all the songs I could find for Season One with a script I have been dying to try.
Apartment and tenement dwellers in the Southeastern region of the United States have been harangued by a mysterious creature that haunts the outdoor stairwells of their buildings. “My boy was coming home from school and saw this thing crouching under the stairs and looking at him through the steps; it was making some kind of whispering noise and scared my boy half to death. He ran and got the security guard but by the time they got back to the stairwell, the thing had vanished,” attests Joann Collins of Indianola. The Collins’s aren’t the only residents of Greenacres that have seen the creature. Apartment manager, Rod Dylan, has a stack of resident complaints on his desk and has ordered extra security services to help the residents feel safe.
Dr. Everret Blakingson suspects that these stairwell sightings are directly related to other, equally mysterious, ‘fly-by’ incidents. “These two sets of sightings happen near each other and in the same spaces of time at every location where sightings of either sort are reported,” he says. The ‘fly-by’ sightings happen most often after rain when the sky is still partially shaded by dispersing clouds. Multiple people have seen a large winged figure pass quickly above. Many more people have been surprised when the shadow of a large winged creature flew over them. Oddly enough, the ‘fly-by’ sightings are often associated with rainbows.
Al Johnson, one of a group of people in Live Oak who experienced a ‘fly-by’ sighting described the creature as terrifying with large bared teeth and flashing eyes. “It looked like there was lightnin’ comin’ out of it’s eyes and it’s mouth was open in a crazy manic grimmace you know, like a crazy person, but it weren’t no person!” –Johnson.
The police of cities where the sightings have been most prevalent have either declined to comment or said that they are investigating civilian reports of danger. Joel Hanson of the Hoover police suggests residents, “report strange persons if they see them and lock house and car doors if they feel unsafe, just as they should with any perceived threat.”
I had a song stuck in my head. It was playing on a loop through most of the afternoon. I input the lyrics into a search box and found out that the primary refrain of my song was a movie: Yidl mitn Fidl or Yiddle with his Fiddle. According to the National Center for Jewish Cinema, Yidl mitn Fidl was “the most commercially successful musical in the history of the Yiddish cinema.” The story about a penniless father and daughter who become traveling musicians has songs, but not the song stuck in my head. There is a clip of “Yidl mitn Fidl” from the movie on the Jewish Women’s Archive and also a version by the Klezmer Quartett Heidelberg:
A cursory search of the internets found “Yiddle on your Fiddle play some Ragtime” by Irving Berlin.
This was also not the song stuck in my head. When I went home last night, I searched through our newly organized record collection for the song. I knew I had heard it in the house, on our little multi-function record machine. I was unsuccessful. Then, while watching Sense and Sensibility I had a brainstorm and went to our CD cabinet. I found Music From the Yiddish Radio Project and on it was Yidl mitn Fidl by the Barry sisters, and Eureka! That was it, so I share it with you. Enjoy!
As a special close to the week’s activities, Kyle Courtney released “The origin of U.S. fair use,” an artistic rendering of the codification of fair use into the Copyright Act of 1976… , which readers may explore here.
even though it would only add to the flood. Then there were even more. There are even multiple poster generators where you can create your own Keep Calm posters. There is a Keep Calm poster for every fandom, every foody, every crafter and every holiday. We are reaching critical mass.
Oddly enough, the ‘fly-by’ sightings are often associated with rainbows.
