June 11th, 1935 – April 28th, 2013
R.I.P. Mrs. Easton.

My personal favorite: Ring-Around-the-Tuna. For some history, go here.

The recent NYT obituary for Yvonne Brill opened with “She made a mean beef stroganoff.” Are you f*#!?g kidding? No offense to any woman who chooses to stay at home with her children. Keep in mind that Mrs. Brill (as she liked to be called) did in fact take leave of her full-time work for eight years in order to raise three kids. But this woman was a  rocket scientist!! Who cares what she cooked for dinner. I want to know about her invention of a propulsion system (still in use today!) that allows satellites to remain in orbit.
Under pressure from the public, and maybe a little in-house ire, the Times did end up revising the obit. What you see here are the edits from when the piece was first published on Saturday at 2:21 p.m to the revision later that night at 9:56 p.m. Courtesy of NewsDiffs.

And really, if you are going to reference her stroganoff, at least include the recipe.

We are moving soon. Right now though, we still don’t know where we’ll end up. Dumbo has become so outrageously expensive and, while the location is great, we are both ready for a change. We actually want something smaller and simpler, if you can believe that. If we didn’t have our place upstate, I might be singing a different tune entirely. Thanks to Cabin Porn for the unending inspiration. For more, click here.

Turns out that there is fierce competition to make the papal footwear. So many variations on a simple loafer. And then, did you ever wonder what the pope wears on those little hiking trips around the Palatine Hills? Well, look no further. All images from the mother lode of historical liturgical vestments. Please note that some of the footwear featured here is no longer in fashion. Not since Vatican II, anyway. And some others are actually cardinals’ or bishops’ shoes. But most are papal. Oh, and yes, the pope ALWAYS wears white socks.

Oh how times have changed. If only the difference between the classes were based upon the forks with which one dares to eat. We are getting ready to move soon, and so begins the purge of unused possessions. I am very much looking forward to lightening our load.

These Swedish handmade metal combs are indestructible. Each tooth is individually hand machined out of high grade aluminum. No burrs, no frizz. And they meet the magic standard of a once in a lifetime purchase. I have had these two combs for at least 25 years, if not longer. And it was really only today that I noticed their extreme precision and good looks. I mean look at those radius corners! And then speaking of trademarks (yesterday’s post), Swedish Crown Combs was granted registration in 1968 and let it lapse in 2008. Which is really too bad, because these are very fine tools indeed. I think these are the same combs, but I can’t be certain.