One of the nice things about having two toilets in a home is that you can relax about keeping both of them able to handle everything. As long as one of the toilets has full flushing capacity, the other can limp along in a delicate state, being used only for the easiest jobs, until you're … Continue reading Award-winning Toilet!
silliness
Battle of the Bagel Ballads!
Nicholas is almost five years old now and getting even better at making up rhymes. As the Hanukkah decorations appear around our neighborhood, we've been inspired to make up more bagel songs to the tune of "Dreidel, Dreidel". Walking to and from the grocery store last Saturday, we took turns singing them and trying to … Continue reading Battle of the Bagel Ballads!
When Robots Write the Blogs
Yesterday I delved into the settings for my blog software and decided to turn on an option to notify me of "trackbacks"--when other sites link to mine. I thought it would be cool to hear about them right away, instead of just discovering them when I poke around in the "statistics" to see how people … Continue reading When Robots Write the Blogs
Fevered Imagining
I've been sick off and on for a couple of weeks, and the thermometer claims I have no fever, but I think I must because of the dreams. For example: The flowerbeds of the little plaza a few blocks away turn out to be a rich source of earthworms. Nicholas and I spontaneously decide to … Continue reading Fevered Imagining
My Favorite Invention Name Changes of 1997
One of my responsibilities when I was a technical writer at an invention-marketing company was to keep track of changes to the name of an invention (that is, the inventor had changed his/her mind about the name under which the concept should be pitched to manufacturers) so that we'd be sure to use the correct, … Continue reading My Favorite Invention Name Changes of 1997
Client Service Notes
Here's another thing I saved from my long-ago job at an invention-marketing company: A letter I distributed to the client service representatives on my last day. These were the long-suffering people who spoke with the inventors by phone and did their very best to speak to these people as if they were sane and reasonable. … Continue reading Client Service Notes
Knee-bouncing Games
These two games have been enjoyed by little children in my family for at least three generations. They worked for me when I was little, they've been favorites of my four-year-old son since he was about nine months old, and I look forward to trying them on his younger cousins this Thanksgiving! These are the … Continue reading Knee-bouncing Games
Lentil Rice
This is a recipe that really works for me! I developed it when I was on maternity leave and wanted hot lunches and needed plenty of nutritious calories for breastfeeding, but I was distracted by the baby and often literally had my hands full. It takes a while to cook, but it can be left … Continue reading Lentil Rice
Excerpts from the Crime & Incident Report
The following items appeared in the "Crime & Incident Report" column of my university's newspaper, mostly during my time as a student there--the last one is from my brief stint working there. It was an interesting campus environment . . . and whoever compiled these reports had a knack for writing them with just the … Continue reading Excerpts from the Crime & Incident Report
Hammer Festival
Here's a funny story that I just found in my archives. One day when Nicholas was three years old, we passed an art center with a banner outside depicting silhouettes of movie cameras on tripods. Nicholas saw them as hammers. "Look, Mama, they're going to have a Hammer Festival! I want to go!" "Oh? What do … Continue reading Hammer Festival
N.E.R.D.cast!
Daniel and I are featured in this podcast from Schell Studio, in which we discuss some of our favorite books, movies, and games, mostly the science fiction ones, with our good friend Jordu Schell and another friend, Mike. Note that this is 90 minutes long so you don't start listening when you don't have time.I … Continue reading N.E.R.D.cast!
Try my card game!
Many years ago, I came up with an idea for a game in which you build a map of a suburban area using cards/tiles depicting segments of street. I made a rough prototype, and then my friends the Looneys helped me make a better "alpha deck" on some extra blank cards they happened to have. The next … Continue reading Try my card game!
a gem from the 1966 Sears catalog
Plastic Wall Tile Alabaster...resembles fine Italian marble 37c square foot Pastel Mist...exceeds government standards 22c square foot Wow. I have worked as an advertising copy writer, and I know how difficult it can be to find anything good to say about some dumb pathetic product. But, gosh, surely there's something about Pastel Mist that's more … Continue reading a gem from the 1966 Sears catalog
Operation Confuse-a-Bagger
Last spring, I was surprised to learn that I am famous for something that happened 16 years ago. That's what happens when you get mixed up with the KGB, I guess: Your exploits come back to haunt you. I'd had no idea that anyone was still talking about Operation Confuse-a-Bagger, much less that Shawn Knight's retelling of the legend … Continue reading Operation Confuse-a-Bagger
Cabbage Nengkan
This is a story about how I cook. I hope it will provide some insight to people who cook only by following recipes, or who "don't know how to cook," as to how one can go about figuring out what to do with the main ingredient that happens to be available. If not, maybe my chaotic cookery will … Continue reading Cabbage Nengkan
The Concept Catalog
Back when I was working at an invention marketing company, one of the ways we promoted the inventions was the annual publication of a Concept Catalog that was handed out at trade shows and mailed to manufacturers and so on. Each invention got a quarter-page ad, written in a certain format: eye-catching headline, product name, … Continue reading The Concept Catalog
Bagel! Bagel! Bagel!
Last winter, one of my Girl Scouts was singing this parody of the Dreidel song traditionally sung on Hanukkah: Bagel! Bagel! Bagel! I made it out of snow. I baked it in the oven. Where did my bagel go? My family found this song hilarious and sang it over and over again. Within a couple … Continue reading Bagel! Bagel! Bagel!
Linkapalooza
Free Range Kids advocates allowing children to develop the skills they'll need as adults, instead of trying to protect them from everything. It started because of the huge backlash to the author's column about letting her nine-year-old ride home alone on New York City public transit. Bravo! (Over-protectiveness is another thing many people told me I would … Continue reading Linkapalooza
Overheard in an office
...and reported to my friends and family in this e-mail on September 9, 1997, long before there was an Overheard in the Office Website, back when I was working at the invention company: Last week, my least-favorite co-worker departed for another job. There was much rejoicing. Stephanie had irritated everyone by criticizing them while insisting that she … Continue reading Overheard in an office
Invention Marketing Claims
A decade ago, I worked at an invention marketing company, whose services were intended to help people who had ideas for new products hook up with companies who would manufacture those products. Some really cool stuff came through, but there were also a lot of silly ideas. The Federal Trade Commission forced the company to … Continue reading Invention Marketing Claims
The Earthling's Handbook 