Monday Stuff On the Way to Other Stuff: Julius Caesar...And Heat

Saw our third Colorado Shakespeare Festival play Friday night: Julius Caesar. After the teenage slumber party that was Hamlet, we didn't know what to expect -- but it was ok. I kept thinking how much of a GUY play it was: lots of swaggering, sword-smacking, bragging, marching, swashing and buckling...

     Then, at the intermission, two people with earphones came out and mopped up the stage. I kept hoping for Carol Burnett's cleaning lady to show up, instead. 

It was necessary, because -- 

 Boy, that Julius bleeds a LOT. (He also has an ego the size of Detroit.) Ironically, no one in the second half bled at all. A lot of people died; maybe they were good coagulaters?

     I enjoyed the text, too, particularly this quote from His Nibs:

"He thinks too much...
         He reads too much...
              Such men are dangerous."

You got it, Buddy!

This past week has been blazing. Even the dogs are eager to stay inside. The grass is crunchy brown, and I have to water daily to keep the heat-loving petunias alive. Things cool off (sort of) by late afternoon, so at least we can sleep at night. Again, sort of. People get a touch crabby and distracted in this kind of weather.  

     I just wish it would rain.

I wish...

The brothers who scammed Kickstarter fans out of a video game, and used California's renter laws to let them continue squatting in an Airbnb long after they'd stopped paying for it. (Almost got away with all this, too, though I suspect a U.S. courtroom is in their future.) One of the few times you'll see someone acting like that, and openly proud of it. (Here's an April 2017 update on what they're up to.)

Top ten 'impossible' things physicists have figured out...and now are possible.  (From Listverse)

A trove of Nazi era artifacts, found behind a secret door in Buenas Aires. Including a bust of Der Fuhrer.

A North Carolina Lily quilt mystery.  (From Civil War Quilts)

Painting AND stenciling your existing bathroom tile... sure, why not? (From All DIY)

The Air Force flyer who became his own bomb -- no parachute -- and lived to tell the tale. (From War History Online)

Opera fudge -- ever heard of it?

Ten free things you can get at airports.

Ten best places to sell your stuff online. (From One Hundred Dollars A Month)

The ex-slave who gave Queen Victoria a quilt.  (Thanks for passing this on, friend Tammy.)

What the cherry tree and cherry blossoms stand for.  Including items from the Language of Flowers and Japanese folklore.

Miracle Spray. This homemade solution is said to clean about anything but wood and mirrors (streaks them).  Thanks, My Abundant Life.

The girl who ate out of the dumpster for months...so she could quit and travel around the world. (She saved $30,000, too.)

Birds on antique album quilts. From Barbara Brackman's Material Culture, including this c.1850 beauty:

From Woodard & Greenstein collection

Plus Instagram photos of hundreds of quilts she's sharing, some antique, some inspired by antique quilts. Oh my.

How to crank your seltzer costs WAY down, if you have a machine. (I thought of Daughter #1, who does. Thanks Frugalwoods, for the idea.)

Ten ironic images.  (Thanks, Listverse)

There's a recession coming -- get ready for it.  And he's right. Sort of.  (From Mr. Money Mustache)

Have a great week. Stay cool.

The World's Favorite Color -- Or So 'They' Say

Wanna know the newest color most favored by the world?

Marrs Green.

At least that's according to a survey conducted by British paper company G.F. Smith. This shade of teal, with blue-green notes, was inspired by the hills of Scotland. (The shade was originally nominated by Annie Marrs of Dundee, Scotland.)

Okayyyy...

It IS pretty. But I never got the memo.  Did they ask you to vote?

Where Is Thy Sting?

The Brick has been punning his way through the Internet today. Our daughters also love wordplay -- okay, me too.  
     Girlies, this one's for you.

Turn-ing On the Fourth

The Brick and I have been deeply absorbed in the final season of Turn: Washington's Spies. If you haven't seen this 4-part AMC Revolutionary War drama, from the viewpoint of the Culper spy ring, you've missed something wonderful...

 
 ...although it sure isn't that way for them right now. Benedict Arnold has defected to the British, and is busy trying to round up the spies and smugglers he knew about, when he was a general in the Continental Army. (I hadn't even thought about this before. As a high-ranking general, Arnold would have known a lot about ins and outs of the general system, including Washington's future plans! What probably saved us: the English don't seem to have trusted him much, either.)

Here he is... Booooooo

     I won't ruin it for you, but there are a lot of plots, double-plots, and triple-plots going on right now. Fascinating. Considering that soldiers hadn't been paid for a year or more, due to a recalcitrant Congress, it's a miracle that our side even won.

Not that we should have, according to our dear British friend, David. We were hateful little snots who enjoyed causing trouble, lipping off and were just plain obnoxious. Ungrateful, too, considering everything our dear British monarch had done for us.

His viewpoint mirrors that of Stanley Weintraub, whose book Iron Tears looks at the American Revolution from the British viewpoint. During an interview with NPR, Weintraub explained the basic problem:

They felt that the American colonists owed them a great deal for protection, for purveying their culture, for providing them with manufacturers. But what they didn't say is that they prevented manufacturers from being made in American Colonies themselves; they wanted to keep the economy dependent on England...there was no way to make gunpowder in America. There were no armories to make rifles or cannon; they had to import them or take them from the British. We were totally unprepared for war because the British made sure we weren't by making them dependent. And so the resentment in America was dependency.

The Brits, according to Weintraub, felt that their American children weren't grateful for protection provided -- especially in the area of taxes paid -- modest amounts, right? 'Too little for too much.'.

So were they expecting Americans to actively revolt, rather than just complain?

They were very surprised when we went to war. They were surprised especially when they lost...when it started, they weren't prepared for it, and they hadn't realized that the American militias that were building up at the time, particularly in places like Virginia and in Massachusetts...They were armed largely because they had hunting rifles. [Too bad they didn't realize Americans knew how to pour and mold their own bullets, as well: a necessity on the ammunition-short frontier.] 
     It took so long before the news got to England -- the patriots were very shrewd. They rushed the news and newspapers to England faster than the British could send their official communiques. And so the American spin...affected England before the government could put its own spin on the war.

British merchants couldn't sell their supplies to the Colonies, because of the conflict. And British citizens were being taxed more heavily, to pay for not only the war, but American's vanished share of the tax. Shame on us.  (grin)

Two of George Washington's best generals, according to Weintraub, were "General Demography," the nation's growing population, and "General Atlantic:"

It took two and a half months to cross the Atlantic [Ocean] by sail against the wind. By the time the Donald Rumsfeld of that war, the secretary for America, Lord George Germaine, sent his orders across to America 3,000 miles away, it was too late; the orders were moot. Things had changed. 

If the Brits had been more tractable, they probably would have retained America's loyalty longer -- and been able to take more advantage of the huge natural resources our country offered. Like they did with many other parts of the Empire -- including Canada.

Oops.

At any rate, I am proud to be one of those rascally, ungrateful Americans who broke loose from their parent country. One of the family ancestors, Isaac Cumings, emigrated from Great Britain as a bondservant (a slave, actually) on the Sally Ann, not long after the Mayflower docked. The only way he could afford to get to the New World, I would guess, was to mortgage the next seven years of his life. Once that time was over, he married and farmed his own land...then started the next generation of  home-loving, independent-thinking Cumingses.

I will remind friend David of this if he does his favorite activity this time of year: contacting me to list all of America's faults -- including the fact that our Founding Fathers were stinkers, one and all. Benjamin Franklin is his favorite target. (Well, maybe Ben was a bit sneaky... another grin)

Where does our dear British friend live, do you ask?  Not in England. Why, Austin, Texas...for decades.
(I should mention, in all fairness, that his wife Lee, an Aussie by birth, is actually quite kind to us Americans.)

This one's for you, David.  From one of those stubborn, freedom-loving patriots who loves her country dearly. With all its faults, I love it still.

Happy Fourth of July, friends!

A Revolutionary Surprise!

This turned up on Youtube while I was looking for something else:


"General Howe's Dog"

     A true story, by the way.

Monday Stuff On the Way to Other Stuff: Mice in the Freezer

It's been so hot around here, we needed a fillup on cold stuff. (Plus Safeway had a great sale on frozen burritos: 25 cents each.) 
     Unbeknownst to me, our neighbors had given the Brick a canful of dead mice for the chickens. (Jeff and Renee raise rabbits, and the rodents steal their feed out of the cages.) 
     "Stick them in the freezer until the morning," Renee told the Brick. So he did.
     I got home and was putting away groceries when I noticed the can. One muffled scream, and the Brick came running. "You weren't supposed to see those," he said.
     I had just read that limes and lemons could be useful frozen -- take them out, nuke them for 30 seconds, and they produce a lot more juice than fresh. 
     "If you took the mice out of the freezer and nuked them, they'd probably be pretty juicy, too," said the Brick.
     I think I will stick to juice for Brazilian limeade. (Our lemons are out right now.) Mouse-ade doesn't sound quite so refreshing.

Bernie Madoff's sons agree to forfeit $23 million...actually, the sons' estates. (They died in 2010 and 2014, respectively.) Now their families will just have to learn to make do with meager estates of $2 million and $1.75 million.

Ghost stories from the tallest peaks.

"Open the door. Now."  Three weird paranormal personal experiences -- from a guy who writes about it for a living.

David Bowie's Tintoretto.

A free Chillbegone knitting pattern.  (Thanks, Ravelry)

Children of the Rising -- some who died after their first taste of chocolate and other sweets. A good reminder, especially for those of us with Irish roots.

A sad tale of babies separated from their mothers.  (From A New Life in the Country)

Ten REAL endings for classic fairytales.  (From Listverse) Plus:

Ten important books -- written while in prison. Including John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress...did you know that? (He also made lace, to help support his family. A friend sold it for him.)

Financial confession:  I became an escort. One in the confession series hosted by Budgets Are Sexy.

Poor old Greta Van Susteren has lost her show. For now, anyways. Aren't you "shocked?" She must have run out of cute blond girls to report on. (We used to watch her show intros, since she came on after Hannity, and saw both these details repeated over and over.)

A Viking toilet has been discovered! Apparently, it's the first...

Tax-free weekends in 2017.  Some states offer no tax on certain products during certain weekends this year -- yours may be included!

The jellyroll stained glass quilt. Wow, this is beautiful. Don't miss the backing photos, either. (From Quilt Matters)

A man, a fish...and a 25-year friendship.  (From Atlas Obscura)

Create your own life. Musings from Life After Money.

The art of the alternative.  (From Pretend to Be Poor)

The strange story of an abandoned pet cemetery...and a whole batch of murders connected with it.

An empty water barrel every night for a Colorado Springs couple. Who was emptying it? (Go to page 9 of this photo essay if you don't have time to page through.)

Everyday people, in the right place at the right time = 6 amazing discoveries. (From Cracked)

The latest Frugal Accomplishments from the Prudent Homemaker...done while the thermometer was at a high of ONE HUNDRED TWELVE DEGREES.  I need to stop griping about our 90-plus temps..

Just heard about a great source for checking airline prices -- particularly if your calendar is open-ended. Skyscanner lets you search for months on end for the best flights at the least prices. I haven't had a lot of time to research it yet -- but the little I've seen is promising.

Have a great week.

Happy Fourth!

Don't forget the many, many people (and their families) who have sacrificed so we could practice freedom.

Thank you.

And to get you in a holiday mood:

Marches from John Philip Sousa.

(This one's the 'Review March')

'The Honored Dead'

And, of course, 'Stars and Stripes Forever!'