Wednesday Stuff on the Way to Other Stuff

It's nice to finally be home for a while -- but that may soon change. A much-loved uncle is dying in the Portland area, and I promised The Mama (his youngest sister) that I would go with her, if she decided to fly there. I've been checking plane fares ever since. 
     Spent a good-sized chunk of the morning weeding. We've had such warm weather that the plants seem to be leaping out of the ground. If we only got more rain...

On the Internet front, in the meantime:

There's been a big snowstorm in Ithaca, NY. (Please God, not here -- the tomatoes are in!)

Martha Stewart's baking pretty, flowery cupcakes -- and you can, too. I'd make fun of Her Superiorness... but these cupcakes are so darn cute!

Too much frugality may end up costing you money. I can see this, waiting too long to do something about the bad tooth -- and root canal -- and crown -- I had this winter. It would have been better to deal with it and pay the money up-front. However, unlike this poster, I STILL am not going to go back to cable tv. We save a bundle without it.


Twenty weird crimes caught because of Facebook -- and the Internet.

Is the Zodiac killer still alive? This author thinks so.

The lowdown on the "underwear bomb" plot. The two times I flew last week, everyone was getting scanned. No exceptions. Made me think of this:
 

From the "Check Your Stock - Fast" Department, comes the cheerful news that the European Central Bank is no longer dealing with several prominent Greek banks. The Greek banks in question haven't made enough progress toward solving their liquidity problems. The issue of Greek finances has been playing havoc with Wall Street for months now, and no end in sight.

Eleven things a writer should not say to an agent. I know a lot of writers, published and would-be, visit here. Some good advice.

And, from the "Figures" Department, comes:
Mike the Headless Chicken is running for president. The headless rooster from Colorado has been dead since 1947...but since he lived for 18 months without a head, why should that little fact bother him?

Speaking of...our 9 (headed) chickies are doing just fine. They bang around the tub we're using for a brooder, walking on each other and pecking for juicy bits in the pine shavings. Unfortunately, they're not too sure what's food and what isn't. I put them out in the outdoor coop for a few hours, while I scrubbed out the brooder tub. Threw in a handful of grass, one dead worm and one terrified live one. They immediately commenced pecking at the worms, but as near as I can tell, basically trampled the live one to death. Silly butts. I only wish I could get them to quit perching on (and decorating) the feeder. 

"...The old virtue of thrift began to look more and more suspicious. In classical economics, savings -- the result of individuals' self-denial and thrift - formed the necessary pool of funds from which corporations borrowed when they needed to build a new factory or hire more workers. But the war had so inflated America's manufacturing capacity that business interests began to see consumption, not savings, as the key to maintaining stability and growth. Corporations feared that if consumers internalized the war's scarcity message and withheld their cash even after the battles ended, corporate profits would suffer permanently.
     Thrift, many businessmen believed, was an antiquated habit that didn't speak to the conditions of a consumer-driven, industrial economy...Toward the end of the war, retailers in nearly every city put placards in their windows telling shoppers it was 'Business as Usual' and warning them to 'Beware of Thrift and Unwise Economy.'"
    A discussion of how people dealt with economizing in WWI, from In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber 


Gee, guess I'd better go spend something! Or go to a Tea Party, instead.