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By:
Betsy Bird,
on 12/11/2012
Blog:
A Fuse #8 Production
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The jolly gift of the season, for me, is to have friends with oodles, sheer oodles, of talent just ah-flowing out of their gills (so to speak). Last year I posted about how some buddies and I got together to make Shrinky-Dink Christmas ornaments (which, in turn, led to Shrinky-Dink Caldecott jewelry later in the year). This year we upped the ante, so to speak.
So I was sitting in my office, minding my own business, when the mail arrived. And not just any mail either. Big mail. Big flat mail. Big flat mail that had a very prominent bakery sticker on the outside. I got very excited when I saw that. Tis the season for chocolate goodies, yes?
No chocolate awaited me inside (well, maybe a little chocolate). What I found instead was a remarkable little gingerbread house kit, complete with a copy of the latest Scaredy Squirrel title Scaredy Squirrel Prepares for Christmas. Inside was a handy dandy builder’s permit (made out to me!), pre-made frosting, gingerbread, the works!
Knowing that I had a Christmas party in my home coming up I schlepped it to my apartment and waited until this past weekend to start construction. Not that I constructed a darn thing. Nope. Say hello to the foreman in charge of this project, Josh Ess.
Some of you may remember Josh as the husband of the illustrious Lori Ess and the man who single-handedly saved an Eric Carle Museum program that featured Anita Silvey (amongst others) when its computer went on the fritz. Turns out, the man does a mean edible arrangement. This may have something to do with the fact that he is a professionally trained chef. Perhaps.
The first problem we had with the house turned out to be the biggest. At some point in its travels, the body of the house had cracked.
So yes. We were dealing with a crack house. Josh put the crack house together as best he could and you can see the clever patching job done with frosting. Still, things were looking dire. Particularly when it was discovered that the roof didn’t really fit either. This called for creativity!! Step #1: Place gumdrops where the house would normally connect.
Step #2: Stick everything in place with copious frosting.
Step #3: Place other portion of roof on top without toppling everything like a house of cards.
Ta dah! With some effort the house started to perk up a bit. Josh even arranged the faux M&Ms on the top in a rainbow pattern.
Now it was time to decorate. And who better to help with that feature than graphic novelist Gareth Hinds? You may remember him from such graphic novel Shakespearan adaptations as King Lear, or his work on The Odyssey and Beowulf. He’s got a killer Romeo & Juliet out in the future, and a very fine hand on hiding the cracked doorway of the house going on here.
Not that Josh wasn’t a remarkable piper when it came to the frosting.
That is the advantage of doing a house like this. When you make a mistake, you eat the cement.
Ta dah!! A happy home for all to see.
But what really sealed the deal for me was Josh’s attention to fine details that would have gone unnoticed had someone not pointed them out. When we weren’t looking he took the Tootsie Rolls that came with the house, some frosting and some toothpicks and made . . . a reindeer!!
Then later in the evening, that same reindeer morphed into Rudolph.
That is what happens when you separate the gingerbread men from the gingerbread boys, son. Josh, you are the undeniable gingerbread king.
Others have received this same house in the mail. If you want to see the full roster you can see them on the Scaredy Squirrel Facebook Page. The blog Pickle Me This actually put the darn thing together using the instructions and ALL the ingredients. Other blogs followed suit. Go here or here if you want to see what it was supposed to look like.
After that there was nothing for it but to make a couple Christmas ornaments with whatever picture book characters I happened to have hanging around my living room. This year the winners included:
Me Want Pet by Bob Shea – ornament created using markers (!!!!) by Alison Morris
Flora’s Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall, illustrated by Matt Phelan – ornament created by Lori Ess using only colored pencils
Humpty Dumpty from the Will Moses Mother Goose – ornament created by Josh Ess
Dick Tracy by my very own resident husband Matt.
And a Sumo wrestler – ornament created just off the top of his head on a spur of the moment whim by Gareth Hinds. It was not traced.
If you do not have a tiny Sumo wrestler on YOUR tree, I pity you.
I cannot thank my guests enough for such a fantastic party. Thanks to Alison Morris, Gareth Hinds, Lori Ess, John Ess, and Matt for helping to make this the bestest Christmas ever. Special thanks to Alison for the bulk of these fabulous pictures.
And thanks to the folks at Kids Can Press for allowing me the chance to make a house of my very own with absolutely zero effort on my own part.
Finally, my own offspring. Suited up to fit the holidays.
By:
Claudette Young,
on 3/9/2012
Blog:
Claudsy's Blog
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Everyone knows how the internet has changed the American scene, as well as that of the rest of the world.
Students aren’t at the mercy of expensive literary searches at university anymore. Research is finished in half the time and is a more efficiently selective process. High school students can reap major rewards by having so much more educational information at their fingertips than ever before.
At the same time, the average person has the ability and wherewithal to generate blogs about nearly every subject known to man.
The Good
There are people with agendas out there, and there are lovely people who’re just trying to make it from day to day, surviving the onslaught of the modern age. And within all of these people there seems to be a surging desire to communicate with others about their lives, their ideas, and their aspirations.
A wife and mother can talk about her day and her frustrations with thousands of other moms around the world and gain solace in the knowledge that she’s not alone.
Kids can vent about how angst-filled their lives are, connecting with others who also feel the need to rip everyone around them. They can also find help and counseling online that they can’t find at home for various reasons.
And while all that “help” goes on, others are providing the stimulus for some already in-crisis kids to end their existence rather than face another day in the trenches.
The Bad/Down Side
The debate rages about limits on personal exposure and personal privacy. Entire volumes have appeared on all of these topics, both online and off. Writers don’t have to go any further than their desk to have enough material to span their lifetimes. Some of it is well-done, some dreadful, but always having a point.
As a writer, I watch news feeds each day, looking for tidbits to use for stories, articles, exploration, etc. Each day I shake my head in wonderment as I peruse the latest and greatest in the world of news. I wonder if everyone has gone totally insane, considering episodes like the one on the American Airlines flight this morning from Dallas to Chicago.
Soon I come to another story about a car costing nearly $300,000 that visited Harry Potter’s world and came away with his invisibility cloak. Yes, an invisible car is cool. We’ve had those kinds of military planes for a long time, but why would a person need one? The price tag along would make the car for the wealthy only. Do those going without adequate food on the table need another reason to resent those who’re living large?
There was the one about Coke and Pepsi changing their recipes to eliminate a particular chemical. I ask myself how long they’ve known about potential problems with that chemical and why they waited for a whistle-blower to press the issue.
We are bombarded with news 24/7 on CNN and other broadcast networks. We can’t escape from it, what with all the apps for phones now and hand-held computers. Dick Tracy watches/communicators are already on the market. How much more news do we need to fi
By:
Claudette Young,
on 3/9/2012
Blog:
Claudsy's Blog
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Harry Potter,
Life,
Internet,
writing,
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CNN,
Activism,
American Airlines,
Perspective,
Pepsi,
Dick Tracy,
Work-related,
Today's Questions,
Political freedom,
Add a tag
Everyone knows how the internet has changed the American scene, as well as that of the rest of the world.
Students aren’t at the mercy of expensive literary searches at university anymore. Research is finished in half the time and is a more efficiently selective process. High school students can reap major rewards by having so much more educational information at their fingertips than ever before.
At the same time, the average person has the ability and wherewithal to generate blogs about nearly every subject known to man.
The Good
There are people with agendas out there, and there are lovely people who’re just trying to make it from day to day, surviving the onslaught of the modern age. And within all of these people there seems to be a surging desire to communicate with others about their lives, their ideas, and their aspirations.
A wife and mother can talk about her day and her frustrations with thousands of other moms around the world and gain solace in the knowledge that she’s not alone.
Kids can vent about how angst-filled their lives are, connecting with others who also feel the need to rip everyone around them. They can also find help and counseling online that they can’t find at home for various reasons.
And while all that “help” goes on, others are providing the stimulus for some already in-crisis kids to end their existence rather than face another day in the trenches.
The Bad/Down Side
The debate rages about limits on personal exposure and personal privacy. Entire volumes have appeared on all of these topics, both online and off. Writers don’t have to go any further than their desk to have enough material to span their lifetimes. Some of it is well-done, some dreadful, but always having a point.
As a writer, I watch news feeds each day, looking for tidbits to use for stories, articles, exploration, etc. Each day I shake my head in wonderment as I peruse the latest and greatest in the world of news. I wonder if everyone has gone totally insane, considering episodes like the one on the American Airlines flight this morning from Dallas to Chicago.
Soon I come to another story about a car costing nearly $300,000 that visited Harry Potter’s world and came away with his invisibility cloak. Yes, an invisible car is cool. We’ve had those kinds of military planes for a long time, but why would a person need one? The price tag along would make the car for the wealthy only. Do those going without adequate food on the table need another reason to resent those who’re living large?
There was the one about Coke and Pepsi changing their recipes to eliminate a particular chemical. I ask myself how long they’ve known about potential problems with that chemical and why they waited for a whistle-blower to press the issue.
We are bombarded with news 24/7 on CNN and other broadcast networks. We can’t escape from it, what with all the apps for phones now and hand-held computers. Dick Tracy watches/communicators are already on the market. How much more news do we need to fi
When Jake and I first started dating, we both really wanted to see Dick Tracy again. For me, it was one of those childhood movies I always remembered. Even as an adult, I still carried images of gangsters in brightly-colored suits and a young Madonna in skin-tight black lace. Jake at least carried images of the latter, as well, so we scoured Blockbuster until we found a copy and watched it together on my couch. Surprise, surprise: it was still good—great, actually, and fun to watch.
I caught it again last night, and again, I couldn’t pull my eyes away. It’s like stepping into a vintage comic book. The bright cartoon colors seep into my brain, and I’m hypnotized. I adore the offbeat performances by some of Hollywood’s elite, including Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Dick Van Dyke, and James Caan. Madonna as the hot jazz vocalist is stunning, and Warren Beatty looks dashing in bright yellow. More than that, it’s a simple battle of good versus bad with violence, action, suspense, and a big romantic smooch before the curtain closes. It’s got something for everyone, including a glorious score by Danny Elfman!
Oh my gosh, give me her wardrobe!
Then, today I realized … there aren’t any cuss words in
Dick Tracy. There isn’t any blood. No nudity. In fact, this gangster flick is rated PG! And it’s still a total blast! Can you say that about any action or gangster movie made in the last five years? I don’t think so, Tim.
Jake brought this up a couple weeks ago after we watched Date Night. Date Night is funny. I was entertained—thoroughly, during certain scenes—and I would recommend it to comedy fans. But Jake made a good point. He was annoyed by the penis jokes. He wanted to know why movies have to push the envelope. Why do we have to take it far and then go just a little further? The penis jokes could have easily been dropped. In fact, they felt forced and not funny. Does Hollywood think we like penis jokes? That we can’t live without them? I’m beginning to think so.
When we discussed Date Night, we went back to a shared favorite, Old School. Yes, Old School is not for kids, but in the vein of Dick Tracy, Old School never went too far. There weren’t any awkward dirty jokes that went on too long. The dirty jokes were subdued, in comparison with recent comedies I’ve seen. The nudity wasn’t crude. The drinking scenes were harmless, and cuss words were made laughable by use of “earmuffs.”
So the question remains: will we ever go back to movies like Dick Tracy, or do we require gore, profanity, and penis jokes to get us through a film? Jake is getting sick of it. I’m getting sick of it. I bet there are other people who are sick of it, too.
The funniest parts of recent comedies are the parts that make the mundane comical. Case in point: the best scene in crude, rude Get Him to the Greek was the “stroke the furry wall” bit. The best scene in
“The price tag along would make the car for the wealthy only. Do those going without adequate food on the table need another reason to resent those who’re living large?”
Clauds, I’ve often disliked greatly the imbalance in our world of poverty stricken and the wealthy. While some, say, professional ball players, for instance, make an unsightly amount of money there’re some that don’t even know where there next meal will come from and are cold. It’s the sign, I believe, of relationship gone wrong and in this case it’s our relationship with money that is out of whack.
“There was the one about Coke and Pepsi changing their recipes to eliminate a particular chemical. I ask myself how long they’ve known about potential problems with that chemical and why they waited for a whistle-blower to press the issue.”
You’ve touched on another topic that is clearly, unsettling and an example of our trust (in our government and it’s regulations that are meant for our safety), being sorely abused. I recently conducted a mini research on the CCD (the colony collapse disorder of our honey bees), and discovered the real reason behind it was our government was allowing the chemical companies do the testing on their own chemicals (pesticides), and deeming them safe, had them on the market for the last nine years. Come to find out these “safe,” systemic pesticides are indeed very dangerous to the health of the colonies and in turn our own food supply etc.
Well, this has been an eye opening, rabble rousing (in a good way), post Claudsy. I didn’t tend to the questions you posed but I shall return later to see what you/others think about those, too.
Thank you and blessings,
Hannah
Even though I read some of the news each day, I try to ignore most of those that I know will raise my blood pressure above safe levels. I suppose it comes from knowing the patterns of political activity, patterns in military behavior and such. Training as a sociologist has its down side. I tend to extrapolate from the tiniest provocation.
Now, though, I’m finding less and less that’s safe for me to read. I really don’t like dealing the entertainment world. The superficiality of it all makes for upset stomachs and headaches.
Some would say that I’ve become intolerant of human activities as I’ve aged. I wonder if it’s intolerance or fatigue. Humans simply never seem to take the time to think about what they’re doing most of the time, or the consequences of their actions.
Don’t mind me. I’ve had a lousy night’s sleep due to noisy neighbors upstairs, and that tends to erase any smilie face I would normally use.
Have a great weekend, Hannah. I know you’ll take time to enjoy your family and the time you have together.
Take care and God bless,
Claudsy
This is exactly why I don’t watch news, entertainment style or otherwise. It IS tiring.
Sorry you didn’t get very good sleep, Clauds. Happy weekend to you, too.
Blessings,
Hannah
The way I look at it, Hannah, is: if that’s the worst that happens to me in a given week, I’m ahead of the game and fortunate.
Happy weekend to you, too.
Claudsy
Thank you!