I am going back to using pencils. Tired of roller ball pens.
Let's have a graphite revival so we can at least hear what we're writing.
Cool pencil sharpeners available here.
April 30, 2015
April 29, 2015
Non-Foncy Fonts (Faw-Faw-Faw)
According to a story by Natalie Kitroeff in Bloomberg Business, "The Best and Worst Fonts to Use on Your Résumé," "Using Times Roman is the typeface equivalent of wearing sweatpants to an interview."
While constrained to often use Garamond as primary font, with Arial as secondary font, my font of fondness is toujours Helvetica.
A friend commented, "Helvetica is so, mid-century modern. If you must go sans-serif, go with Franklin Gothic."
So I looked it up. Franklin Gothic was named in honor of a prolific American printer, Benjamin Franklin. How does it distinguish from other sans-serif typefaces? It has a more traditional double-story a and especially g(as double-story gs are rare in sans-serif fonts), the tail of the Q and the ear of the g. The tail of the Q curls down from the bottom center of the letterform in the book weight and shifts slightly to the right in the bolder fonts.
Courier v. Georgia v. Times.
Helvetica v. Franklin Gothic.
I definitely prefer the extra-bold sans-serif type.
While constrained to often use Garamond as primary font, with Arial as secondary font, my font of fondness is toujours Helvetica.
A friend commented, "Helvetica is so, mid-century modern. If you must go sans-serif, go with Franklin Gothic."
So I looked it up. Franklin Gothic was named in honor of a prolific American printer, Benjamin Franklin. How does it distinguish from other sans-serif typefaces? It has a more traditional double-story a and especially g(as double-story gs are rare in sans-serif fonts), the tail of the Q and the ear of the g. The tail of the Q curls down from the bottom center of the letterform in the book weight and shifts slightly to the right in the bolder fonts.
Courier v. Georgia v. Times.
Helvetica v. Franklin Gothic.
I definitely prefer the extra-bold sans-serif type.
April 28, 2015
Misophonia Madness: Raindrops on My Nerves
At a recent lecture, someone put their sound setting on "Raindrop." Every time a message came in, I heard DRIP.
As if ...
Get in the misophonia and selective sound sensitivity discussion on Facebook.
Click here.
As if ...
Get in the misophonia and selective sound sensitivity discussion on Facebook.
Click here.
April 27, 2015
Shaker Simplicity
There is something soothing about simplicity and symmetry.
Here are a few shots from Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass.
All photos by Bonni Brodnick
Here are a few shots from Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass.
All photos by Bonni Brodnick
April 25, 2015
April 24, 2015
Misophonia Madness: Did You Remember to Empty Your Pockets?
There was something metal bouncing around in the dryer. Even after I removed the homeless quarter, my ears could still hear it.
Get in the misophonia and selective sound sensitivity discussion on Facebook.
Click here.
April 20, 2015
Misophonia Madness: The Copy Machine
Someone wrote in:
"The most annoying sound I heard today was sitting in a meeting and hearing the distant copy machine go roque. It printed hundreds (and hundreds) of copies. Someone finally asked, "Is anyone printing something?" When no one answered, another colleague went over to the machine and pressed "CANCEL."
Selective Sound Sensitivity. Click here.
April 19, 2015
20 Years Since the Oklahoma City Bombing
I am eternally grateful to the Pound Ridge mothers who joined my effort, 20 years ago, to plant a memorial garden, skirting the Pound Ridge Community Church playground, to honor the 168 victims -- including 19 babies -- killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. Here is the article written by dear friend Cynthia Wetzler:
Pound Ridge Sculpture Honors Oklahoma Dead
By CYNTHIA MAGRIEL WETZLER
Published: April 27, 1997
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POUND RIDGE— IF rocks could speak, the white alabaster in ''Unfinished Lives'' by the Pound Ridge sculptor Miles Slater might be saying to the dark granite that it enfolds: ''It's O.K. Let go of the pain.'' The sculpture was the focus of a commemorative ceremony at the Pound Ridge Town House last Saturday to remember the children who perished in the Oklahoma City bombing exactly two years before -- on April 19, 1995.
Melva Noakes, founder-director of the America's Kids day-care center in the Federal Building, flew here to attend the ceremony. Mr. Slater's ''Unfinished Lives'' seemed to mesmerize those who studied the hunk of granite in the sculpture, a piece of rubble from the razed building.
It all happened the way things sometimes do -- with synchronicity. A Pound Ridge resident, Bonni Kogen Brodnick, had kept the granite in her house for two years and never felt comfortable with it. It had been brought to Pound Ridge in June 1995 by Ms. Noakes to dedicate the Oklahoma City children's memorial garden, which runs along the playground of the play school at the Pound Ridge Community Church and is now blooming with daffodils. But Ms. Kogen Brodnick, who came up with the idea for the garden and enlisted a group of Pound Ridge mothers to help her plant it, said, ''The rock had energies that were reminiscent of an evil event.'' She took the rock to Mr. Slater.
Mr. Slater had been working on a white alabaster swan, which had recently cracked in half. ''I happened to look and see an indentation in one of the halves of the swan,'' he said. ''With only a little cutting, the piece of granite just fit in.'' What were meant to be swan's wings now encircle the granite in a protective gesture. ''My objective was to do something to diffuse the negative energy, the heat, the heaviness of the granite. The softness of the white alabaster, the antithesis of the harsh granite, embraces the rock.''
Mr. Slater, who spent a third of an investment banking career as president and chief executive officer of Salomon Brothers International and who left banking in 1995 to be a full-time sculptor, was moved after the Oklahoma City bombing to create ''Rescue,'' which depicts a fireman carrying a small child out of the rubble. The original in marble is in the Governor's Gallery permanent collection of the Oklahoma State Capitol. A bronze version is now in the Pound Ridge Town House along with ''Unfinished Lives'' until May 5, looking for a permanent setting.
''The strong bronze arms of the fireman cradle the child and echo the abstract form that cradles the granite rock in ''Unfinished Lives,'' Mr. Slater said. Synchronicity again? ''I didn't do it consciously . But I did want to show that men can nurture. The sculpture says, 'Let me give you my strength,' '' he said. Mr. Slater left the roughness of the original stone at the bases of both pieces of work untouched. ''They are meant to look as if they were coming up out of the debris,'' he said.
''Chills went through me,'' Ms. Noakes said. ''The statue is so white and pure, like the sincerity I have felt in the letters I have received for two years from the mothers in Pound Ridge.'' Ms. Noakes, dragged from obscurity into the limelight, has been besieged by the media and supported by people nationwide. But through the efforts of Ms. Kogen Brodnick and her group of mothers a special bond has been established between Oklahoma City and Pound Ridge.
Ms. Noakes said: ''It's a deep connection that has helped us through our grieving process, a process which has altered me. I'm making sure to spend more time with my family around the fireplace at home. We're holding hands at dinnertime again. I take time with them today. I may not have them tomorrow.''
As Ms. Noakes pondered the granite and alabaster sculpture, she said, ''That dark rock is sitting in such peace now.''
Photo: Miles Slater talking about ''Unfinished Lives'' and ''Rescue,'' right, during ceremony at Pound Ridge Town House. (Chris Maynard for The New York Times)
April 14, 2015
Was that LISL STEINER I saw at The Kitchen Table?
Lisl Steiner ... The venerable and formidable.
One of the featured stars in POUND RIDGE PAST: Remembrances of Our Townsfolk.
~~~~
Now in its second printing, Pound Ridge Past is a delightful anthology of historical and personal recollections of life in Pound RIdge from the rural 1920s to the swinging 1970s.
The book includes first-hand accounts of Hiram Halle, an American businessman, inventor and philanthropist, and his impact on Pound Ridge; what it was like to attend one-room schoolhouses (much to Eleanor Roosevelt's dismay), what was the town buzz the day World War II ended, or when Albert Einstein was a surprise guest at a local party. Also dazzling the calm of the countryside were such renowned celebrities as Tallulah Bankhead; Frank Morgan (the "Wizard of Oz" himself!); Buster Crabbe; Shirley Jones; Eli Wallach; Ann Jackson; Zoe Caldwell and Robert Whitehead; writer Westbrook Pegler; radio sports legend Howard Cosell and "Tom and Jerry" cartoonist Jack Zander.
POUND RIDGE PAST was a collaboration of
Pound Ridgers Bonni Brodnick (author, writer, Huffington Post contributor),
Gina Federico (graphic designer, blogger on Modern houses, Modern architects and Modern design)
and Fran Collin (celebrity portraits and fine art photographer.)
in beautiful #ScottsCorners.
Lisl is also the star of a youtube "What's Underneath" episode, "Society is Kaput & Other Truths From an Ageless Spirit." Click here.
She's also my muse. Click here for a Huffington Post, "Don't Be Possessed by Your Possessions." Listen to Lisl lay it on. She is simply fabulous.
April 11, 2015
This goes here and that goes there.
I always wanted to be this organized. Telephone goes next to my bed, orb monitor is within easy reach, magazines are neatly piled, baby is conveniently filed ... Good times.
April 8, 2015
April 7, 2015
Chicks Ubiquitous on Polynesian Island
A story in The New York Times talks about chicks gone wild in Kaui. I noticed the same thing when I was there a few months ago. Feral chickens are everywhere. The beach, parking lots, in the woods ...
"They seem to be living a whole diversity of lifestyles, from eating garbage and cat food to being fed by tourists at the beach to foraging on native arthropods,' said Eben J. Gering, an evolutionary biologist at Michigan State University who has been studying these truly free-range birds.
In the parking lot
Local lore is that many of the chickens are descendants of birds that escaped when Hurricane Iwa (in 1982) and then Hurricane Iniki (in 1992) ripped across the island and blew chicken coops all over Kaui.
Waimea Canyon
At the beach on the Nā Pali coast
In the hotel lobby. (Oops ... wrong bird shot.)
On a path near the Kalalau trail
In one far-flung comment on TripAdvisor, a traveler notes: "There are many legends regarding the origin of the checken eggs. Some involve extraterrestrials."
Much to the amusement of tourists, and to the dismay of people who like to sleep late, Kaui is like Las Vegas for the roosters. They crow 'round the clock as if there is no day or night.
April 5, 2015
April 2, 2015
A Misophonia Moment ...
The sound of your cat meowing when you're trying to meditate.
OMMMMMMmmmmmmmG.
To join the Miso- Clubhouse, check out the FB page, Misophonia Madness.
Want some more? Click here.
OMMMMMMmmmmmmmG.
To join the Miso- Clubhouse, check out the FB page, Misophonia Madness.
Want some more? Click here.
April 1, 2015
Major Snowstorm and Whiteout Conditions Blanket Wilton
We are currently under at least 20-inches of snow, and it continues to fall heavily. Winter Storm What-the-Hell? is in full-blast as we face whiteout conditions, impassable roads and downed power lines from a major snowstorm that we pray is the last of the season.
It's a frikkin' nightmare out there with a lot of cracking sounds as old maples fall. |
Cheers to the town snowplows for keeping the roads clear. |
The snow is making archeological patterns outside the upstairs window. |
The birdbath a few hours (and about 8-inches more snow) later. |
Citizens were urged to stay inside. Fill the bathtubs with water. Only open the refridgerator if you have to. When you go outside, don't look up. Wear boots. Bring an umbrella. If in doubt, throw it out. Be safe. Count your blessings. Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth.
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