lifeӢline
a thing on which someone or something depends
or which provides a means of escape from a difficult situation
Dropped a stitch or several while knitting? Tried to fix a mistake and made a worse mess of it? Just got hopelessly lost and need to start a section again? Continue reading
What the hell do I do now?
– John W. Dean
Did Dean really write this memo as the Watergate scandal started to unravel? Dunno. I saw it — given as an example of admirably succinct writing — in a long-lost Toastmasters Magazine article on removing excess words. Continue reading
rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, roggelach, rogelach (all plural),
rugalah, rugulah, rugala, roogala (singular)
The spelling variants are understandable, speaking of the many linguistic groups that adopted this treat for understandable reasons. But why anyone would need the singular is beyond understanding: I mean, can anyone eat just one? Continue reading
A weekend at a Canadian Shield lake is pretty much guaranteed to send you home with bites: black fly, mosquito, deer fly, or horsefly, depending on the month. This last weekend was no exception: I am still sporting an itchy welt on my left foot from an attack executed through a tiny mesh section of a waterproof kayaking shoe. In a kayak.
On the other foot, while doing the extensive research so typical of these posts I discovered both a discouraging fact and a helpful tip about deer flies. You can guess which is which . . .
Their distribution is worldwide,
though they have not been reported in Iceland, Greenland, and Hawaii.
They do not enter buildings.
Even when I do venture out the building into the Great Outdoors at the lake, what’s never guaranteed is the more-desirable wildlife: the photographable as opposed to swattable variety. But this last weekend sent me home with photos of frogs, deer(s?), and loons, oh my. The frog has found a biting-fly-avoidance strategy that works for it, hunkering down on a slightly slimy lake edge; the deer, not so much. Sister, I feel your pain.
Psst!
I turn around, wondering who is pssting me in the produce department.
Psst! Wanna buy some grape raisins?
What? And huh?
Exploring my cache of old photos is not quite an adventure worthy of Lewis and Clark, but it’s a lot more comfortable. Herewith (which is one of those words you sometimes see but never ever hear), some fun photos from yesteryear. Continue reading
I don’t know if every junior high school class had one in the mid-1960s, but we did: a guy who counted down the days to each American rocket launch. A guy who tracked the progress of each space mission.
From Jul 1963 to Dec 1965, he was in his element: Americans reached at least 10 space milestones. I thought he was a science nut and fully expected he’d go into Physics, likely Astrophysics. Nope: History. Continue reading
Sometimes Google isn’t just stupid fast, it’s stupid, you know? Here, for example, returned in just over half a second, is the first page of about 208 million results for a search on “one man, one kit.”
I’m pretty sure the meaning I’m trying to validate and originate (as it were) has nothing to do with stage-specific localization, Smad-dependent pathways, or spermatogenesis. Sigh. Continue reading
Moderation is a fatal thing.
Nothing succeeds like excess.
– Oscar Wilde, maybe
I say “maybe” because I’ve seen this attributed to Wilde, but never tracked down the source. And without the source, well . . . Continue reading
Posted: 2025 Aug 20
