The Recipe is Right on the Box!

Dear Hurry Up,

Today, a recipe for the pressed for time set:  to call it a recipe is a stretch- what it really consists of is a photo on the carton depicting a "serving suggestion."  These little chocolate sprinkles are nothing like the waxy domestic jimmies you might be familiar with.  These are from Holland, as in Dutch chocolate, and they are delicious.

These little sprinkles, my friends, are good-  And dashed over a good butter* (see here if you don’t know what ‘good butter’ might mean) and a nice slice of whitey white bread, they are more like the pain au chocolat of France than anything.

 

As the cooking mavens and the foodie magazines say, these belong in your pantry!

Get them here, and better order two boxes!  They come in dark chocolate, too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* This is a GREAT butter:  Vermont Creamery.  So do like Betty Botta, won't you?

Betty Botta bought some butter;

“But,” said she, “this butter’s bitter!

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

But a bit o’ better butter

Will but make my batter better.”

Then she bought a bit o’ butter

Better than the bitter butter,

Made her bitter batter better.

So ’twas better Betty Botta

Bought a bit o’ better butter.      

 

 

 

where seldom is heard, a discouraging word

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear All,

 

What are we doing here?  I love this question- because it invites further questions.  What can the highest goal of a thing, an object, an image, a spark, a word, be?  What can be begotten by any one impulse? 

 

Plenty, I'll wager.  For a while now, I have been fumbling around trying to formulate a few thoughts on the spread of things.  Our time here is an exchange of ideas, even though we may not speak directly to each other.  My exhortation to you, is for you to improve this unlimitedly large place called the internet.  It is, indeed, full of junk, which is exactly why you must improve it.  It is your job to make it better. 

 

Someone here at the Dodo has added his two cents, and this post has a video of a gorgeous plasma plume;  have a look, it will send you gleefully to your paint box.  The large distances and great forces involved in getting things out of here (and sometimes back) are a siren song for wonder and reflection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grande South.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Care for a little more?  Listen to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lost Your Marbles?

It's ok, my dears, you can find them in this instrument....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sanderlings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too Cute?

Dear Bird Voyeurs,

Submitted for your approval, or disapproval:

 

 

 

 

 

Nest Box Cam season approaches, and I am still not sure what I think of it all, but I spend a few hours every other week counting and watching the birds at the feeders for Project Feederwatch.  How far am I from playing dress up with my feathered friends, I wonder?  Am I a deontologist or a consequentialist?

 

More about Piip Show.  More about Feederwatch.  More about surveillance ethics.  If you read the entire article, you can reward (?) yourself with a look at this bit of film, and further contemplate our insatiable appetite for entertainment and knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

art v. craft

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Crafty Person Who Uses Their Hands in Skilled Ways,



Years ago, I had a much clearer boundary drawn between art and craft-  it went like this:

      Can you use it?  It's not art.

      Is it photography?  It's probably not art.

 

 

These facile distinctions make for good jokes, but they don't shed any light on what art is or why it isn't craft.  Hence, I have retreated into the greyness between art and craft.  I no longer use my mind to attempt the double back flip of telling anyone what art is not.  Our discourse on what is art has become a little too vague to participate in.  We are not yet defeated, though, because we can define a related term:  Ornamentation.

Your coffee cup holds liquid for you to drink without Donald Duck being printed on it- The image of Donald is ornamentation, and your cup is a utilitarian item. 

Also, it probably isn't art.  It might not even be craft, but it is an ornamented object.  Ornamentation does not affect function.  Your cup works even if Donald wears off after years of use.  So, today, an ornamentation project of mine, please to not be confused with art, or even craft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my freshly ornamented helmet.  Helmets, as you know, have a shelf life.   I suppose it's that the plastic becomes brittle, or the styrofoam degrades.  My beloved previous helmet was a shiny hot pink, dated 2008.  Helmet-wearers are advised to replace them every five years. 

 

Water-mounted decal paper was used in an ink jet printer to make this large pair of moths to adhere to my helmet.  The moth images came from a beautiful printed calendar a pal gave me years ago.  The decal paper is easily purchased online.  Like the decals you had in your plastic kit models, they are water slip decals- easily applied with water.  On very slick surfaces (like the top tube of my bicycle) they are also easily scratched off, but they leave no sticky residue or any trace of their existence.  I applied a matte acrylic varnish over the top of these moths on my helmet to help preserve them.  I have worn it and banged it around in my skate bag for 2 months now, and it seems to be holding up very well.

I bet you will find a lot of things in your immediate locale that call for ornamentation with water-slide decals:  Perhaps that coffee cup with nothing but two duck feet left on it could use a new decal....