Open Thoughts- Monday once again for our mother

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

There weren't too many comments when I was there, Alma, but just in case they grow overnight, here's the permalink:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

Terry Pratchett would have done it better -- but of course Terry Pratchett was never a dKos blogger.  I think it's funny...and who doesn't like allusions to both Lost in Space and I, Robot?

But I gotta say, I was especially thinking of Ria: we both love the genre.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

As planned, I finally watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly straight through this weekend (twice!), and fsm damn he was brilliant in that film!

Damn near every friggin' thing he did was funny, from taking a bath to shooting people.

Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones...

"For an impenetrable shield, stand inside  yourself." ~ Thoreau

I was fascinated by your post about Tantrum 911 which the link says is a fragrance blend with the vibrant fruity aromas of strawberry, banana, and a delectable variety of spices.

I know that aromatherapy is widely used for adults I never thought of the calming effect on children.  Do you know anyone who has used this product or something similar for children?

It got me thinking about teachers in the class room and using music as a calming tool which we know how powerful music can be but I think smell is not as well known or maybe not as effective, but here I found this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

The body is such a mystery I would really like to see more information about this.

I think all of our senses working together to calm someone who is sick or depressed is a very powerful alternative to drugs.  In the video it seemed to just change the subject long enough for the little girl to calm herself.  Very interesting, thank you for posting it.

But the local paper is nearly impossible to search unless you remember the exact headline of the story.

And it was on the front page, above the fold!  But that was...two or three days ago.  Now all I get is ads from searching & no, I do NOT remember the exact headline.

So it's a comment, instead.

A nonprofit arts group here got together with local businesses & repainted some old upright pianos, tuned them, and put them on the streets.  IIRC, there are about twenty.  I walk past at least 3 or 4 on my way home from work.  Sometimes you get to hear someone who actually knows how to play & sometimes (I was walking by at the time) you get someone who mangles "Chopsticks."  But it's kinda cool, and I figured it had to be some sort of public art program: just didn't see any reporting on it until this weekend.

Here's where I would have included quotes and linky goodness to the story & begged Ria to embed a photo, if I could only find the goddamn link.

The non-profit got the pianos & they were repainted  & apparently only one got a graffiti tag which, according to the original story, was in keeping with the theme of that particular piano.  In fact, the story was quite congratulatory b/c apparently everyone thought that we thugs in the inner city would have trashed them all by now...but instead, those pianos which are not under an awning have been covered up so they won't be harmed when it's supposed to rain.

I just assumed the company that sponsored that particular piano covered it up.  The reportage didn't say that, though...it implied that anonymous people did the tarps to keep the pianos alive.  (My bet's still on the sponsor.)

Anyway, I wish this were a real post with linky goodness and not a half-assed comment, but my POINT is: we have something like 20 upright pianos gracing the downtown business district, and people seem to be enjoying them.  And so far, no real vandalism or trashing of them.  Sometimes when I walk home, there's a group of early-20-somethings all singing around a piano at once.

Doesn't matter whether they're any good.  They are enjoying themselves.  And it's public art.  I don't live in NYC anymore...I can't go to see Shakespeare In The Park.

Whadda I got?  I got free public pianos on the street that ANYBODY can go play.

For a small city like this one, I think it's brilliant.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.
E. B. White  

♥~

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

My mom would love to meet Aziza, and my brother, sister-in-law and the kids would love to see her again.  We've got to make arrangements, although I told my mom that next Monday evening was no good for me, that I was busy, and I declined to tell her why.  Hehe.

Honestly though....I can't wait to see my alltime favorite movie, West Side Story again.   As much as I love that film, maybe it isn't a bad thing that I only get to see it twice a year at the most.  Absence makes the heart grow even fonder, as some people say.

I hear Aziza talking and whistling to me as I'm typing on my computer in my bedroom.  She does the "Jets" whistle from West Side Story beautifully!  One would have to hear it to believe it.   As strange as this may sound, I've also begun reading Mother Goose poems aloud to her!   In late September, I'll be making my annual road trip and pilgrimage out to the midwest to visit relatives.  Management has hired an insect extermination company to come and treat the common areas, recycling rooms, trash-chute rooms, to come on Tuesday, the 21st of September, and I'll have to have Aziza out of the house that day, so, after speaking with my relatives, I decided to have my annual trip coincide with the extermination day.   I called the pet store where I'd purchased Aziza from, told them about my plans, and they said OK.  Btw, they only let people who've bought their pets at their store board them for vacation.  Aziza's still a baby  (she'll be about 7 and a half months by then), so it's all very well to start getting her used to being boarded annually while I go on vacation.  Traveling with her for such a long distance, and for such a long time would definitely be out, for all kinds of reasons;  Who knows what places will be pet-friendly?  There've been a lot of thefts of exotic birds lately, and leaving her alone in a hotel room or wherever while I go to dinner, etc., would be a bit risky.  Also, who knows what kind of toxic stuff the cleaning maids use?

Sometimes, I can't help thinking that my pride was dented when my job at the publishing company was taken away from me.  Sure, most of my years there were good ones, and I've still got fond memories,  but things began to change, and got especially bad when they brought in that nasty supervisor who harassed people almost to the breaking point.  She was a real piece of work, that one!  Hate to sound like I'm resorting to stereotypes, but she always liked to bar-hop after work, and she sometimes came back smelling of beer or whatever.  It may have at least helped explain some of her assholish behaviour and the fact that she frequently slept around to earn what little power she had, but I can't excuse it.  Sometimes I can't help thinking that I felt like a normal, independent and proud person, until they brought in that nasty two-bit whore of a supervisor who thought I wasn't fit to do what "normal" people do.

"Evelyn" came from sort of a  rough and tough blue-collar Irish Catholic background, which is not to say that all people of working-class Irish Catholic stock are like that, but she was just a nasty soul, and, as I said, a two-bit whore on top of it all.  Last time I heard, she was working as a telemarketer for the Greater Boston Foodbank, which is a shitty job.  I wonder how well "Evelyn" would've made out as a prostitute, or, at least, as a madam who operated and ran a brothel.  I bet she would've made a good living and shitloads of money, but it's really hard to know, imho, what guys see in her, even physically, since she's ugly as sin, over-made-up, with bleached-blonde hair with gray roots showing, and even her all-gray skin showed under her make-up sometimes.  Sometimes, I don't think she even came from a working-class family, but a family with a history of welfare dependency and alcohol abuse; inotherwords, more like no-class, rather than working-class.  Little underlings such as her can do a surprising amount of damage in their own right.  Disgusting.

"Jane", our other supervisor was the antithesis of "Evelyn" in terms of personality;  totally  mousy.  I think that she, too, had alcohol problems, but she didn't sleep around and play kissy-face like a two-bit whore with all the guys around to earn what she got in terms of power.   "Jane" could be sneaky in other ways, however.  When she wanted people to get back to work, or, if she didn't like what people were discussing, she'd join in their conversation, and then begin to worm her way in, making them uncomfortable.  She, too, created an atmosphere of isolation, although several of us, including myself, ended up being united against a couple of common enemies.  We all went our separate ways after I left, and then after everybody else in our department was swept out by the Bigwigs at the company, but there's one former co-worker that I go out to dinner with once a month, who  managed to get a better job, with nicer people, in another department of the company, and who seems much, much happier since she left the old grounds.  One woman joined her partner and headed off to California.   Two other women, although they're still around, have more than likely retired, although one of them worked in a clothes store for awhile, which eventually folded and went out of business.  Me..I'm still around, doing stuff I love and liking it, and yet I can't help feeling a lingering resentment of my two-bit whore of a supervisor who dented my pride.  

After all is said and done, however, I'm grateful for what I've got, and would never wish myself in another person's shoes.  

The more things change, the more they stay the same.