Priscilla's Zine & Bookstore: August 5 Link Log

Friday, August 5, 2016

August 5 Link Log

Well, so far (she announces, opening the "new post" screen at 10:30 a.m.) this morning, everything that could possibly go wrong has. This is the sort of day when "How are you?" is provocation. Hiss, spit! I've let two posts go live without Amazon links. This post is getting an Amazon link, but...

Categories: Amazon, Books, Fashion, Food, Fun, Gardening, Marketing, News, Phenology, Writing, Zazzle

Amazon

Amazon demands that people buy something from Amazon in order to review it...to make money, of course, but in theory to prevent abuses like this one:

http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=77713d21ff56f1c126607d2c5&id=1952a0ddb1&e=39cf8b2be9

Here's the Amazon link...it sort of relates to what I just posted, into which I didn't feel that throwing an Amazon link would have been appropriate. This is a new edition of a publishing phenomenon--a book so obscure and off-putting to commercial publishers that the first edition had to be self-published, that took off and has gone into multiple reprints. It's not appropriate to all home care givers, even and especially all geriatric home care givers...but Jolene Brackey really caught on to something valuable with this book.

Books

How does High Desert Barbecue sound to you? (It's a novel not a cookbook.)

http://www.tuccille.com/

Crafts

Crochet the Disney Princesses? All of them?

http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2016/08/disney-princess-crochet-review.html

What about vegetables? Hey...it's possible to crochet anything. I doubt that working spaceships will ever be crocheted together, in the real world, but models...

http://crochetbykarin.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-side-of-carrot.html

Disasters

+Bill Kasman found and re-shared a bit of recent history--last year's report on Hurricane Patricia and how its damage compares with other epic disasters in Mexico.

https://myheartofmexico.wordpress.com/2015/10/24/5-worst-natural-disasters-in-mexico/

Fashion

Personally, I like pockets. I don't buy skirts, dresses, or trousers that lack pockets--big enough to contain my hands, at least. I like pockets on men's clothes, too. I think cargo pants are not a fad that passed, but a classic that should stay around; if manufacturers fill the stores with pocket-impaired garments, let'em burn their no-pocket "fashions" to keep warm this winter while we wear multipocketed clothes! What's "for not having sex" is flab on the body beneath the pockets. That can be a turn-off.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/08/05/week-cargo-shorts/

Food (Yum)

Ginger lemonade:

http://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/natural-remedies/ginger-lemon-aide-recipe

Fun

Fun facts from Dan Lewis:

http://nowiknow.com/the-weekender-august-5-2016/

Gardening

If anyone out there has arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome, I'd like to know how these things work for you:

http://thegardenersfriends.com/

Marketing

It would be excellent public relations if corporations gave up the bait-and-switch routine and just told people what they were offering for what price, the way private individuals do. When my coevals used to talk about “being straight,” that was the kind of thing we meant; sex had nothing to do with it. Note the way the word “straight” has been hijacked…by those who want you not to think about the possibility of plain, honest business? ???

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/148455234631/the-bait-and-switch-confusopoly-economy

Nature

The sundew plant:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/5-sticky-facts-about-carnivorous-sundew-plants

Can you survive "in nature"? Do you know which wild plants you can eat and where to find them? What about fire and water?

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2016/08/prepper-eight-survival-myths-that-will.html

News

Birmingham church bomber is “denied parole”? He’s still alive? He’s not been denied water? Are our tax dollars being wisely spent?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/1963-birmingham-church-bombing-fast-facts/index.html

At least the IRS has been ordered to stop targeting political groups...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/5/court-irs-must-prove-stopped-tea-party-targeting/?

Phenology

First hurricane of the season. I suppose this would be what the edge of just washed away my income for the week.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/americas/hurricane-earl/index.html

In August, birds eat fewer mosquitoes, more of them hatch, and you really need a good topical repellent to keep them off your skin. Though nothing will ever be quite as effective as making friends with a few paper wasps.

https://www.mjjsales.com/natural-mosquito-repellent.html

If you can find a place away from all the nasty light pollution, you may be able to see a falling star this weekend. (Light pollution is a new thing in my part of the world. Twenty years ago I could look out at night and see stars all over the sky. Now, because too many neighbors have pathological fear of the dark, I look out and may be able to see all of the Big Dipper, Orion, the Pleiades, and Cassiopeia's Chair--if lucky. We need laws requiring all outdoor lights to be fully hooded.)

http://thedailyvoicenews.com/2016/08/04/watch-the-perseid-meteor-shower-not-this-awesome-since-2009/

Pictures

I still rely on Morguefile and Pixabay when I need a free digital photo. Here are some new sites that offer different ones:

http://www.beckykiser.com/blog/best-free-stock-photo-sites

School

Trigger warning: this discussion will get edgy! Is the University of Virginia (the central one in Charlottesville) shortchanging UV Wise?

http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-thunder-from-the-west-signifies-a-growing-political/article_3b30d7c2-01af-55ef-a0b3-effefecf32f4.html

Tributes

A public-spirited doctor died too young...but you have to read his poem.

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1354/sagar-kabra-a-doctor-who-strove-to-light-the-world-brett-lewis/

Words

Where do you stand on using "they" to mean "s/he," as in "Each participant should bring their own lunch"? Because it's easy to type "s/he," I don't like a singular "they" in writing. In conversation, I use it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/singular-pronoun-they-humanist_us_577d1b21e4b0416464114fbc?

Example:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/08/05/black-guns-matter-founder-on-clintons-gun-control-push-anybody-has-the-right-to-be-as-foolish-as-they-want-to-be/?

Writing

Much depends on the type of story a paragraph fits into…The link below contains two sample paragraphs from a piece of fiction. My reaction, as a reader, is that in a long historical (or contemporary-period-of-history) novel, the paragraph that tells you all about the color of the car and the tune playing on the radio is better because it shows the time and place. In a shorter novel or short story, I think the shorter one would probably be better shortened than expanded; it could be cut down to, say, “As Eve adjusted the controls and pulled out of the rental car lot, a sad song on the radio brought tears to her eyes.” And why even mention that, unless the story is going to be about Eve’s traffic “accident” or her recognition that her not having one had been a miracle. What do you think?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2016/08/putting-in-your-five-senses-worth.html?

Zazzle

Words of wisdom on a lamp shade?