Matters of Life and Death
Check out this series of portraits taken of people before and after they died, Life Before Death. The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days.
Thanks to Dooce for the tip. Love her.
Green and frosty this morn. We’re moving outdoors, but wanted to send a shout out to the Colgate Palmolive Company, distributors of the fine product Irish Spring.
If you’ve followed this blog, you’ll know that last summer, we conducted an experiment with Irish Spring as a non-toxic cat repellent as a deterrent to the five kitties next door. We try to live in harmony with the felines and admire their hunting prowess, however, my flower beds and driveway are off limits as a litter box. Not with five cats.
So, with the weather warming, the cats are out and are starting to set up camp in my bushes and on my vehicles. Back to the experiment: I’ll use the Irish Spring again. But Dear God! I don’t have time to be shreddin’ no soap! My studies indicate that only the BAR soap peelings of the ORIGINAL SCENT is the most effective.
Somebody please hop on the go-green bandwagon and market this brilliant idea of non-toxic cat repellent!
Note to self: Hop on the bandwagon.
Scientific Break Through? Now, here’s the weird thing: In 10 years of living at this location, this is the first winter that we DID NOT HAVE A MOUSE IN THE HOUSE!
Coincidence? You decide.
Candace had tipped it us to the fox and bobcat pee trick to rid yerself of rodents, and I’d thought maybe it might work on the cats too. Or would it?
These cats are sporty. The bird bath had been full and birds were stopping by to clean up. So the cats hide behind a bush and wait for birds and squirrels and then pounce. Right on the bird bath, and manage to knock the dish off. See the feathers in the pix?
One day? I was home alone, and I heard this screaming and scratching at the bathroom window! Finally, I got the nerve to pull the shower curtain back, open the blinds to the window, and see a squirrel plastered to the window, scritching and clawing to get away from you know who was waiting in the bushes.
Frankly, I’m not running a Save The Birds And Squirrels campaign here, I just want to protect my concrete birdbath and not have my house smell like cat sh*t.
Thank you for your consideration. Peace be with you.
Meet Mr. Owen Hilton.
WWII Military Vet.
Purple Heart.
84.
Works out everyday Monday-Friday. He usually starts shooting baskets about 5:30 in the am.
Takes NO medication, except for: A Baby Aspirin Daily.
Nothing else.
Mr. Hilton is the only 84 year old gent that I know that doesn’t’ take a zillion pills.
He’s a fine Physical Specimen and a nice guy too.
The new addition to our bug collection is the Egyptian Scarab keepsake urn. The scarab beetle was of one of the most important religious symbols in Egypt and many of the dead were buried with scarab amulets as a symbol of regeneration.
Our Sacred Scarab keepsake urn comes in green with lined interior and bottom. Perfect size for storing jewelry, a lock of hair, dried flowers, sacred burial ground, or other small mementos.
Last month I had the television on and in the background was a documentary on the boxer, Joe Louis. I snapped to attention at the mention of Louis’ attorney, Truman K. Gibson Jr. Honestly, I’m sad to say that I’d never heard of Gibson, until 2006, when his grand daughter called from D.C. to order his urn.
At the close of the conversation, she told me that me that this great man had a hand in making history and his name was Truman Gibson. She invited me to look him up.
I did.
And was blown away.
And honored.
Brief Highlights:
Black Cabinet: a Chicago attorney who had been the last surviving member of the World War II-era “black Cabinet” of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman.
Racial Covenants: Mr. Gibson was a member of the legal team that challenged a restrictive racial covenant prohibiting African Americans from living in the Washington Park area of the South Side. He spent months poring over property deeds to build the factual basis for the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned the covenant. The plaintiff was black real-estate developer Carl Hansberry, whose daughter Lorraine would use the experience as inspiration for her 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Army Racial Segregation: With the outbreak of war in Europe and the increasing likelihood that the United States would be drawn in, the Roosevelt administration sought to answer the growing outcry from black Americans over the segregated military and the second-class support status of African Americans in the military. Mr. Gibson played an influential role in finally convincing the Army that it had to commit African-American troops to battle. Most notably, the black 92nd Infantry Division was thrown against the heavily fortified German Gothic Line in northern Italy in early 1945 in a terrible bloodletting that remains a source of controversy.
Thank you Truman Gibson.