Category: Friday Unrelated Information

1. I’ve signed up for “new listings” emails from a real estate office (more to just keep my goal in mind than to actually buy anything yet) and the agent remarks on the houses continue to be great. Did you know that Salt Lake has a trendy acronym-ed neighborhood? One house was located in “SOTRO (South of Trolley).” Groan.

2. Would you like to look at some mid-century gas stations designed by famous architects? (Who wouldn’t?) Check them out here. I kind of want to move in to the Albert Frey one in Palm Springs.

3. Here is a recipe for Carl Sagan’s apple pie. I’m sure it will be crumbly, but good. (Click for big.)

1. The Writer’s Almanac tells us
Today, writer Isabel Allende is starting a new book, just as she has been doing every single January 8th for the past 29 years. On January 8, 1981, when Chilean-born Allende was living in Venezuela and working as a school administrator and freelance journalist, she got a phone call that her beloved grandfather, at 99 years old, was dying. She started writing him a letter, and that letter turned into her very first novel, The House of the Spirits. She said, “It was such a lucky book from the very beginning, that I kept that lucky date to start.”

2. And here’s Toby on an IKEA nightstand nicely finished by my dad as per this hack:

1. Now that the first decade of the 21st century is almost over, I’m finally getting with it: I have a Flickr account now. None of my own photos are in it; it’s more like a virtual inspiration binder for decorating and projects. (It started because I needed to see two different pillow fabrics next to each other.)

2. I’ve been idly going through real estate sites, just to see what I’m up against (a lot), and the “remarks” on each house on the Chapman Richard site are hilarious:
Careful, Cat May Attack If You Try To Touch
DO NOT LOCK THE DOOR ON THE INSIDE OF SUN ROOM.
Great Fixer-Upper, House Is Uninhabitable

3. And finally, with the solstice approaching, here’s a column from The Guardian by poet Jeanette Winterson about embracing the dark and using it for reflection, being “dark without being melancholy, brooding without being depressed.”

1. As I’ve been full of the Christmas Spirit not having to work two jobs, I’ve been watching Christmas movies. Holiday Inn was in the queue this week and so I got to see the original rendition of “White Christmas.” Which was followed by a number for Lincoln’s birthday featuring Bing Crosby in blackface. Ugh.

2. I’ve found a blog about working on and living in old houses from the 40’s through the 70’s: Retro Renovation. It even has tips on what to do with a pink bathroom!

3. The mittens performed admirably at the company party last night, even though it was SEVEN BELOW at Soldier Hollow–and that’s not counting the windchill from tubing.

1. If you’ve wondered what comes after “host of archangels” and “coven of witches,” check the Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns.

2. I was reading an old J. Peterman catalog last night, from 1994 (what, of course I kept some of them) and here’s part of the description for a silk taffeta ball skirt: “Is there just too much elegance, too much barely containable romance in your life? Of course not. Read on.”
Oh, 1994 was a simpler time, when I believed ball skirts would lead to balls and J. Peterman could sell something called the “Afghan Rebel Hat.”

3. What I would like to do, too:

1. Funny! And alarmingly true to life! The Emotional Hokey-Pokey.

2. I can’t tell if this iPod speaker is a real product or a joke (“It looks frightening and it IS frightening”?), but I always click links that say, “Wall of sound.”

3. The Where the Wild Things Are movie is at Brewvies now, starting tonight. I might have to put that on the agenda tomorrow if I can get all the final gardening done.

1. Carrying over the Beatles post from last Friday, here’s a flowchart of the lyrics to “Hey Jude” (click for big):
2. And because I can’t get enough of iconic bands from the 60’s, last night we watched Gimme Shelter. No, I don’t want to dress like Mick Jagger now, but the movie has the best version of “Love in Vain.” Enjoy.