If it were, I would buy this and put it on the wall next to the Bernina:
(The larger size is still for sale on 20×200.)
keeping calm and carrying on
Not Appropriate For Client Meetings
I bought this shirt when it was on sale a few weeks ago and I really, really want to wear it today. That would probably be frowned on, though.
Wednesday Tune: Happy Birthday, Ralph Stanley
Bluegrass legend Dr. Ralph Stanley is 82 today, so today’s tune is one of his: “The Darkest Hour.”
It’s just before dawn, of course. Which is another way of saying things have to get better.
Wednesday Work Tune
I realize that “Work Tune” is kind of a stretch, because I’m not playing real work songs like “Union Maid,” but I think the blues count, right? Here’s Robert Johnson’s 1936 recording of “Walking Blues” for your Wednesday listening.
Why this one? I like the nervous energy in it, and I like the verse around 1:30:
Well, some people tell me that the worried blues ain’t bad
Worst old feelin’ I most ever had
Some people tell me that these old worried old blues ain’t bad
It’s the worst old feelin’, I most ever had
Wednesday Work Tunes
I thought I’d start a feature of some Depression-era songs, if only to remind me that it could still be a lot worse. The song I wanted to feature first, though–“Hard Times Come Again No More”–wasn’t written in the Great Depression; it was written in 1854, by Stephen Foster.
I’m sad to admit I don’t know much about the economic situation leading up to the Civil War, but I think the fact that it was 1854 is enough to qualify the song for inclusion here, even if there wasn’t a recession on then. (No vaccines, no painkillers, slavery was still going strong…) And the lyrics are still meaningful, I think:
Let us pause in life’s pleasures
And count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor.
There’s a song that will linger
Forever in our ears:
“Oh hard times, come again no more.”
Keeping It In Perspective
In addition to pulling together a portfolio and biting my nails over my long weekend, I started reading about Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition:
There is nothing that makes you think, “Wow, it could be worse” faster than hearing about people stuck in the frozen Weddel Sea.
They were for all practical purposes alone in the frozen Antarctic seas…Nobody in the outside world knew they were in trouble, much less where they were. They had no radio transmitter with which to notify any would-be rescuers, and it is doubtful that any rescuers could have reached them even if they had been able to broadcast an SOS….
Thus their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out–they had to get themselves out.
And in a nice cross-media tie-in, I watched Encounters at the End of the World Saturday night. (Highly recommended, especially for Werner Herzog’s voice-overs.)There are crazy scallops underneath the ice in Antarctica! And seals make weird clicking whistles underwater! The world is a cool place, and I’m not trapped in the ice. It could be worse.
Friday Information
To just jump right into the information: I was laid off from the agency yesterday. They were as pleasant as they could be about it–gave me a few contacts at other places, some vacation pay as severance, and offered portfolio help. But still.
On the bright side, I have lots of fabric and yarn piled up, so I won’t have to buy more of that for a while; I can now go to the grocery store in the middle of the day; and Toby is really enjoying playing in the box that I used to take all the stuff from my desk home.
So let the search for a new job begin. If anyone reading this needs a freelance writer, let me know at karen(dot)kaminski(at)gmail(dot)com. I have some great skills–knitting skills, sewing skills, writing skills…