I want to love anything as much as Drew Barrymore loves everything. Perfection. pic.twitter.com/Of3eptyp45
— michael brown (@boyinquestion) July 17, 2022
I’m not even trying to be dramatic but you can tell Drew Barrymore thought she was going to die young and now my good sis is just living life the way she was meant to.
— Rachel Leah (@raetheforce) July 18, 2022
If this strikes you as ‘undignified’ or ‘cringe’… maybe you’re not the target audience:
Made with recycled plastic, Mattel unveiled a Barbie doll of British primatologist, Jane Goodall, fulfilling a longtime wish of having her own doll to inspire young girls https://t.co/Qoha4UEAiP pic.twitter.com/zWxIpKBdKz
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 12, 2022
Dolly Parton's book program is helping so many kids around the world! pic.twitter.com/ldZlQsBPrq
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 11, 2022
Dolly Parton never imagined her book giveaway program would amount to much more than helping children in her native Sevier County, Tennessee, learn to read.
But over the past 27 years, millions of children have enjoyed a free "Dolly book" every month. https://t.co/ar9LtxS44U
— Axios (@axios) August 11, 2022
… Driving the news: The entertainment icon visited Columbus yesterday to promote her Imagination Library program and thank county sponsors from all over the state.
– Her appearance alongside Gov. Mike DeWine and First Lady Fran DeWine also served as a celebration — Ohio now has the most enrollees of any U.S. state.
– The governor also declared Aug. 9 “Dolly Parton Day.”…
Between the lines: The Imagination Library is an unmitigated success for the DeWines, whose statewide travel promoting new sign-ups coincides with the governor’s reelection efforts.
For Gov. DeWine — pummeled by Republicans for his pandemic response and later by Democrats for his stances on abortion, redistricting and gun rights — the program offers a much-welcomed and apolitical diversion on the campaign trail…
Gabby Gifford on Gun Violence, Politics, and Forgiveness https://t.co/zWzo5dUkZf
— ForensicPsyMD (@ForensicPsyMD) August 14, 2022
… I don’t think of my assailant. He took so much away from me, and even more away from the families of the six people he murdered. At Jared Lee Loughner’s sentencing hearing, my husband [former astronaut and current U. S. senator Mark Kelly] told him, “You have decades upon decades to contemplate what you did. But after today, after this moment, here and now, Gabby and I are done thinking about you.”
I’d rather spend my energy on channeling that pain into purpose than giving him another ounce of myself.
I think of forgiveness as tied to—but distinct from—acceptance…
On the inside of my wedding band, Mark inscribed the words “You’re the closest to heaven I’ve ever been.” I’m so proud of the work he’s done, both on this planet and above it. All in all, I highly recommend marrying an astronaut.
I never was worried when he went into space—though of the two of us, we never could have predicted that I’d be the one with the more dangerous job…
The gun lobby has spent decades pushing the narrative that owning a gun makes you safer, and that being allowed to carry a gun around in public is an exercise of freedom. They don’t, and it’s not.
Freedom is being able to exist in public spaces without having to worry whether someone next to you has a gun.
I get asked a lot if I’m bitter about what could have been. I can honestly say that I’m not. This acceptance has taken me a while to come by, and I won’t pretend it’s been easy, but that’s been one of the keys to my recovery.
And a quickie beat-sweetener for a lady who deserves more praise…
… Despite being the First Lady, a school teacher, a mom, and a grandmother, Biden told Real Simple that she still somehow manages to get seven and a half hours of sleep “most nights.” And even on those days she can’t, she says she’s “mastered the art of the catnap,” revealing, “I can sleep for 20 minutes and wake up fresh.”
Her other secret to tackling her long list of duties is lots and lots of Post-It notes. She explained that she often uses the sticky reminders to solicit help from others, especially when preparing to host big dinners with her husband, President Joe Biden. “I know my meal and what I’m going to serve, so I do Post-It notes, like ‘Fill the glasses with ice,’ ‘Light the candles,’ and I put them on the cabinet above my kitchen counter,” she said. “Then I put out the salad bowl with the tomatoes or the lemons or whatever needs to be cut, and every-thing is set up so when somebody comes in, they do what they want to do.” Biden said it’s also an effective way to communicate with her husband, explaining, “If I want to get a message to Joe, I put one on his mirror. It may be a nice ‘I missed you’ or ‘I hope you get whatever it is you’re working on.’”
And while her busy schedule may cut into her beauty sleep, Biden says she wouldn’t have it any other way and always “knew” she would be able to “make it work” as the only First Lady in recent memory to maintain a paying job outside of her White House duties. “I think people were a little skeptical,” she told the magazine of her decision to continue working as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. “Could I truly do it, since I was the first one to try it? But I knew I wanted to teach. And so I said, ‘This is what I want to do. We have to figure it out.’ I knew I could do both. I’d done it as second lady, and at that time my staff said, ‘There’s no way you can do this,’ and then they saw that I could. I saw it work then, and I knew we could figure out how to do it now.”…
raven
The old automatic post!
Anne Laurie
Nope, I’m here — for the moment! (This iteration of FYWP doesn’t have a working ‘schedule in advance’ function, which is why OnTheRoad has been appearing so erratically lately… )
JAFD
Looking at high clouds, waiting for sun to crest horizon. Have to fire up bread machine, make some ‘goyische raisin challah’ for potluck party tonight in furthest Brooklyn,
Hope you all have great day today!
Ken
I’d almost feel sorry for anyone who tried to make Dolly Parton’s book program political, whether by trying to ban one of the books or by trying to restrict who it served. Almost.
Mimi
Short, violent thunderstorm woke me up. I hope there’s more later. I want the Air and Water Show cancelled. Well, mostly the Blue Angels (or is it the other ones this year? I don’t know). They’re too loud and they like to fly right up to the high rises in Lake Shore Drive and pull up *just* in time to not reenact 9/11. I hate them.
Geminid
The other day I noticed a small poster for a group organizing to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Greene County. It was on a bulletin board at the Stanardsville, Virginia grocery store.
Geo Wilcox
@Mimi: Be thankful you never lived under the flight path to a Navy base.
The Quiet One
@Geo Wilcox: We’re in the outbound path, some days, of the B2 and I have to say they are really quite majestic. It use to be it would be past us then you hear the roar. Now I recognize it’s take off rumble and know when its coming.
Torrey
Another lady to pay attention to: Olena Zelenska, first lady of Ukraine, has just hosted the second Kyiv Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, a conference she originated in 2021 to mobilize the “soft power” of the spouses of heads of state to use their status as prominent but non-political actors to focus on humanitarian issues. A brilliant idea, IMO.
MagdaInBlack
@Mimi: A similar storm woke me up out here in Arlington Heights. I’ve often wondered how the people living downtown felt about the Air part of the show. Now I know
Eta: next up, Gran Prix racing on LSD.
Spanky
Images of whacked out drivers going neck to neck at 5 mph, even though I know you mean Lake Shore Drive.
MagdaInBlack
@Spanky: 🤗😉
I thought about spelling it out, but I decided it would be more fun if I didn’t.
OzarkHillbilly
Braggart.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought the exact same thing! Or she has better drugs available
Suzanne
I went out to dinner with Mr. Suzanne sans kids last night. It was nice. I have been really cutting back on refined carbs, but we went to a restaurant that specializes in “fancy pizza”. I am the weird born-on-Long-Island-Italian who really does not give a shit about pizza, but I do enjoy the fancy pizza genre. I also got tiramisu and cappuccino afterward, so it was very nice.
Earlier this week, I had to drive down to NoVA for some work meetings. Typically, I drive there and back through Frederick and Hagerstown, then get on the PA Turnpike in the exceedingly weird locale of Breezewood. This time, I took I-68 through Cumberland, MD, went through the crazy mountain pass at Sideling Hill, and then crossed into PA and drove home via Ohiopyle. I have to say, that Laurel Highlands area really is just spectacularly beautiful. There’s still a fair amount of dead-ender Trump signage out there, but it’s definitely looking worse for wear.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@The Quiet One: i lived in Annapolis for 4 years. We had fighter jets shake our house a few times. Pretty crazy when you’re not expecting it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I’ve been dealing with some back issues of late. Doing PT once a week, etc etc. My new NP gave me a scrip for the pain and said, “It will help you sleep too. But be careful, if you use it too much it can get to the point where you can’t sleep without it.”
I’m not sure about why I should be careful. I already can’t sleep without it.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: you oughta take your material on the road!
Spanky
@Suzanne: Oh yes! I68 is infinitely better than the turnpike. Plus it’s free.
I used tp travel between DC and Pgh a lot when my mother was fighting her cancer in the late 70s. There was no I68 at all at first and I got to see the notch at Sideling Hill dug out. The colors in the fresh cut were amazing.
OzarkHillbilly
A buddy of mine and his wife had a place above a long deep valley. Warthogs used to fly down it all the time at about the elevation of their house. His wife K liked to sunbathe in the nude. The day came when one particular warthog flew by, then turned around and made a second pass, then a 3rd… After that, there were a lot more Air Force planes flying up and down that valley for no apparent reason.
Spanky
@Old Dan and Little Ann: We’re mid-way between Andrews AFB and Pax River NAS, and besides jet and Osprey traffic, the DCANG likes to bring their Hueys down the river at tree top level.
The cats are always jumpy.
ETA – After reading OH’s comment, it occurs to me that I should try nude sunbathing. That’ll stop ’em.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I think I’ll show this to spouse when he gets up. Got his stitches out yesterday and doc said ease off on using back brace. He’s napping now to recover from effort of getting up, going downstairs and eating breakfast.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
I remember visiting Great Falls, MT as a teenager and a fighter jet boomed overhead. Was a loud surprise.
Geminid
I found some good news from earlier in the month: the ceasefire in Yemen was extended for another two months on August 2. The ceasefire first went into effect in April and this is the second extension.
There is still some fighting in Yemen, and road closures have hampered relief efforts. The UN’s local leader for humanitarian aid says that “alarming conditions persist.” Still, it’s a real break for the people of Yemen, the longest since the war started ten years ago.
Mimi
@Geo Wilcox: O’Hare is straight west of me, but yes, I wouldn’t want to be near any armed forces airfield.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: It’s amazing how much energy constant pain can suck out of a person.
p.a.
Just went for a ride around the block in a 1959 MGA Coupe with a guy who had it out at the local coffee shop. Total piece of shit but hella fun. Good body, rough at low speed, felt good at higher speed (hard to judge speed accurately when you’re basically sitting in a tin can). Surprised I fit in it- I’m only 5’10” but it looked small. Actually a lot of leg room, sitting almost like you would in a kayak. If I had to get in behind the wheel it might have required contortions my body can’t make anymore. Interior was in rough shape, and no seatbelt, wood floor.
1959 MG MGA Coupe (man. 4) engine Horsepower
Engine horsepower for MG MGA Coupe (man. 4) in 1959, the model with 2-door hardtop coupe body and Line-4 1489 cm3 / 90.9 cui, 53.7 kW / 73 PS / 72 hp (max) engine for North America .
Spanky
@sab: You really have to experience chronic pain to really know how exhausting it is, but I don’t recommend it for anyone.
Except tfg.
john (not mccain)
@Ken: I wonder how difficult it would be to gin up the magats to investigate a book giveaway program by someone as drag-adjacent as Dolly. I’m guessing none difficult.
Mimi
@MagdaInBlack: I work close to Michigan and Chicago so I have a great view of the Friday practice runs.
I don’t mind the rest of the Air part of the Air and Water Show. It’s biplanes and people jumping out of other smaller, quieter planes. I live close enough to walk to the lakes to watch the northern part of the water part of the show, but I expect we’ll see a Covid spike in a couple of weeks from having a million or so people crowding the beaches.
Suzanne
@Spanky: DOOD that cut through the mountain is really crazy and impressive. I can only imagine how much blasting that required.
I actually think the Turnpike is also very pretty, but there has been a widening project going on the entire time I have lived here, and so driving through that work zone is not so pleasant. I also don’t love the semi traffic. I think I saw one semi on I-68 and that was it. I will be going back down to NoVA in a couple of weeks, and it’s nice to have the option of a different route. Driving through Westmoreland County is gross, though.
cintibud
@Suzanne: We are at our cabin in WV very close to Friendsville MD. Going to Ohiopyle tomorrow to kayak the Yough. Brought our two kitties with us for the first time. They handled the 5+ hour OK and have settled in much better than expected. Very nice having our fur babies with us!
NotMax
Things we don’t need on the road.
A “family sedan” with 1200 horsepower that can do zero to sixty in two seconds.
Suzanne
@cintibud: Enjoy the kayaking! Ohiopyle is so lovely. I want to go out there this October. The leaf-peeping that we did in our first year here was amazing. Like a Crayola box.
cintibud
@Suzanne: Thanks! The leaf peeping definitely is great out here!
oatler
All you crazy clowns with your planes and kayaks. Decades TV is showing a “Harry O” marathon this weekend and I’ll be paying my respects to older-generation resentment while y’all fritter your leisure time away.
frosty
@Old Dan and Little Ann: My parents lived on the Severn and we’d watch the Blue Angels fly over their house on graduation day, standing on their wingtips and so low you would think you could touch them.
Nicole
I am both happy for and envious of Dr. Biden. As we continue Doggie Hospice with our ailing senior pit bull, undersleep is becoming a state of being; like a lot of cancer patients, Ripley is very anxious and restless at night (her days are still pretty good; naps, treats, even a game of indoor fetch some days). At 1AM this morning, after hours of her roaming the apartment and whining (and numerous trips outside, to make sure it wasn’t her bladder) I finally just lied down on the hardwood floor with a pillow and a blanket where she’d stretched out, whining, to pet her (she doesn’t whine if she’s being petted). I figured I’d try to lull her to sleep and then get up and go back to bed. Five hours later, I woke up to discover she’d, at some point, moved herself to her doggie bed in the living room and I hadn’t even noticed. I felt like a kid again- look. Ma, I can still sleep on a hard surface! Except that, as a kid, I’d have been capable of being functional after only 5 hours of sleep. ;)
It sucks, but I know lots of you have been here, too, and you know it sucks. But it’s what you do. Grief is the price you pay for love. And, I guess a lot of sleepless hours can be added to the love charges as well.
And the 12-year-old kiddo has a six-hour rehearsal today for a theater thing he’s doing that I’m helping out with, so I’ve got a six-hour rehearsal today. It’s times like this that I am so grateful the Universe gave us coffee.
prostratedragon
Had forgotten about the A&W show until yesterday when I heard this roar which clearly was not the kind of critter we usually get here on the flight path to Midway. Might not make it this year, but when I have gone, have to admit that the exhilaration was enough to overcome a fair amount of skepticism.
NotMax
Thing I learned today.
One of the choices for special meals on American Airlines flights with free food service is “bland.”
“Simple cooking methods used specifically for passengers with digestive sensitivities.”
;)
Dorothy A. Winsor
We already grocery shopped, and now I’m drinking my coffee. This is my only caffeine hit of the day, since it elevates my blood pressure. But it is good.
frosty
@Suzanne: Ohiopyle is one of our favorite state parks. The campground is at the top of a steep winding road. After coming down with a trailer I decided that Ohiopyle is Native American for “Land of Smoking Brakes.”
Suzanne
@frosty: There’s a runaway truck ramp on that highway near Ohiopyle that looks freaky AF. I can only imagine driving that with a trailer.
I like to do outdoor stuff during the day, but I don’t like camping overnight and sleeping outdoors. So Ohiopyle is a great day trip, and then the kids can join Scouts and go camping.
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
I don’t know if you ever bop over to LGM, but there’s a post there this morning about FYDisqus, and its issues.
So, of course, I commented “FYWP.”
Suzanne
@NotMax:
I remember Mr. Suzanne’s grand-dad complaining about restaurants that serve food with “too much flavor”. Dude ate fried chicken every week and drank Dr. Pepper every day.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
You ventured forth to interact with the world before coffee?
You’re a braver one than I. Gunga Din.
;)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: There’s no one else in the store at 7am. But you already guessed that.
I hesitate to ask, but does anyone here use tiktok? If so, how hard is it to post there? I ask because B&N has a table up front labeled “As Seen on Booktok,” and I’m afraid my editor is going to want me to add it to the social media sites I’m on.
frosty
@Suzanne: We’ve never slept on the ground. Started with a Coleman pop-up and we’ve moved up to a hard-sided trailer with a bathroom. There’s not much about it I’d call “sleeping outside” but yes it’s a bit different than a motel. Best thing is that you can wake up with your coffee and you’re already outdoors.
raven
@Anne Laurie: Oh! I’m sorry!
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
NotMax
FYI.
Summer camp session shut down early due to you know what.
kalakal
@Geo Wilcox: In 1986 a gf and I were on a canal holiday on the Cherwell/Oxford canal north of Oxford, UK. Lovely, calm, peaceful, beautiful countryside. Next second 3 FF-111s came howling over at about 50ft, struggling to gain height, fully loaded with ordinance and huge drop tanks, engines on max. Followed by another 3, I counted 25 in total appearing over a very serious looking security fence a short distance away. It was the start of the bombing mission on Libya and we were happily floating along just past the end of main runway of RAF Upper Heyford, didn’t even know it was there.
The noise was incredible and you actually feel the down pressure.
Suzanne
@frosty: I can’t really sleep without doors that lock. Once I have that, I’m okay.
trnc
Isn’t the program meant to provide books to kids who have little or no access to books? I’m trying to figure out why having more enrollees would be something for a governor to be proud of.
Suzanne
So I don’t know if anyone else has one IT band that’s tighter than the other. I found this stretch this morning and hot damn. Feels terrible until it feels amazing.
Nicole
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Here’s a good step-by-step:
https://support.tiktok.com/en/getting-started/creating-your-first-video
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Boy is this the truth! Most days the things I do to help my back pain keep it down to a dull roar, but I have days when I wish I had some Oxy. I tell people it would be easier for me to say which parts of my body don’t hurt at least sometimes. Mostly I sleep ok, though. When I don’t it’s usually that my mind won’t shut off. And yeah, it saps my energy when I have a bad pain day.
The cardiologist’s office called yesterday. Yay, I get another doctor. 🙄 Even though my stress test was normal, I have to go anyway because of the left bundle branch block. I didn’t know there were docs who specialized in the electrical activity of the heart.
Layer8Problem
@Suzanne:
@Spanky:
I’ve traveled to West Virginia for years, originally via the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I-68 as it was being constructed became our favored route. I’ve always loved the change in the landscape from I-81 through Pennsylvania onto I-68. The progress into the mountains is lovely. The strata visible in the Sidling Hill cut is geologically interesting. Getting off the Interstate has some nice spots too. I remember walking up the old National Road bridge over the Casselman River and lunch at the Casselman Inn in Grantsville.
It still surprises me. I never had stopped in Hancock, MD but had a beautiful break for a packed lunch at the height of Covid by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal locks.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nicole: Thank you!
Nicole
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Anytime! I don’t do Tiktok myself (although I have enjoyed viewing many a Tiktok video) but I find using each of these new social media platforms are ultimately just a learning curve. And, hey, if it helps you sell more books, totally worth the time and effort to learn it!
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: I was introduced to the joys of the IT band after I broke my ankle 4 or 5 years ago. Ouch.
I saved your stretch in a tab so I can look at it later.
Suzanne
@Soprano2:
Yep. And they get special electrophysiology labs. I’m working on two of them right now.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: I am tighter on my right side than on my left, which is really common in right-handed people. I am pretty flexible, but I can only do splits on the left…. working on the right. Being able to get deep release of the right IT band feels very great.
cintibud
@Layer8Problem: The Casselman is very beautiful and has a very fun stretch of whitewater above Markerton. It’s too low this time of year though. Easier than the Yough, class 2 with a few easy 3s
J R in WV
@Geo Wilcox:
Our little house in SE AZ sits at 5500 feet in the foothills of the Dragoon Mtns on the SW side of the Sulfur Springs Valley, a large totally flat surface with some irrigated farms but mostly desert. The A-10 Warthogs from Davis-Montham AFB train out in that country, and often arrive by popping barely over the Dragoons (8500 feet high on the south end) and shooting past and below our knoll.
Then they have to climb over the low hills between our foothill and the valley floor at around 4000 feet. Fun to watch, and not too loud as they’re coasting downhill after crossing the Dragoons.
Not having spent any time out there since Covid, we’re thinking of selling it, after a whole lot of work to build it.
zhena gogolia
@Nicole: I’m sorry about your dear doggie.
Miss Bianca
Sitting here in Maryland, waiting to go to the hall to help set up for my sister’s memorial service. My niece has put so much work into it, and it’s going to be beautiful. But I was reduced to a blubbering wreck just looking at the slide show her husband put together, so I have to make sure to bring plenty of tissues.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: I hope you find it healing.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: oh, it has been already. Just being with my niece and her family, meeting her friends, seeing Sis’s best friend from the Santa Fe Indian School again…I wavered about coming out, but am so glad I did.
J R in WV
IT band — as a former software guy, sounds to me like a group of IT pros with a weekend (bluegrass / rock / jazz pick one, or something else…) group. But now I begin to suspect it has something undefined to do with musculature. IN all the PT I have done over the past 30 years, no one has ever mentioned an IT Band. Also, that stretch video looks torturous, even compared to the stretching I got after shoulder replacement:
“Does it hurt bad yet?”
“Not too bad yet.” PT guy pushes harder, moves arm farther… asks “Does it hurt bad yet?”
Eventually I have to go “Squeak!” and he’ll hold it there for a while. A little farther each day…
@Miss Bianca:
Sorry for your family’s loss! Hope the group gathering helps you a lot.
trollhattan
@Spanky: {Starts car}
Whoh, dude, it sounds like orange.”
The judges would also accept limited slip differential.
trollhattan
@J R in WV: IDK what to make of it, Time published an article revealing we’re training Ukrainian pilots on the A10. This how the Air Force finally rids themselves of them? “You get a plane, and you get a plane, and you…”
IMO the ONLY way to live in Arizona is >5k feet. The lowlands are for suckers and snowbirds.
Glidwrith
@Suzanne: FWIW, didn’t know what this was, but that band has been tight and bothering me. Thanks!