In the Family

My niece Natalie and my nephew Gavin love to draw and paint. Not surprising, since everyone in my immediate family is artistically inclined. (Many in the extended family too) Gavin has a penchant for drawing little houses in a triangular shape, with windows floating in the air around the house. He's also gotten into drawing multiple versions of his family--- Mom, Dad, Zack, Gavin, Natalie, etc. Usually the 3 cats are not listed. Natalie seems to enjoy more color in her paintings. She seems to be a natural in combining striking colors. My sister takes their drawings very seriously and has a gallery of their framed works.

The Bah Humbug Christmas Sing-a-long

Tonight some friends and I got together and sang some Christmas and holiday songs. It was great fun. My favorite part of the evening, though, was when we drifted to the darker side, crooning out some deep and dark rock and roll favorites. Here are three I sang out with all my little heart.

Thank Goddess For PBS!

Recently I ditched my cable T.V. service. Since, I've been entertaining myself with a combination of DVDs from Netflix, and online television programs. I've seen some fantastic PBS programs online lately, and had forgotten how wonderful PBS is. To think I was watching endless episodes of 'Ghost Hunters' (not that there's anything wrong with that), while missing Nova and Masterpiece Theater! If you are bored and holed in for the winter, I recommend these!

1. American Experience: The Assassination of President Lincoln

2. Masterpiece Contemporary: Collision Pt. 1 &2.

3. Secrets of the Dead: The Airmen and the Headhunters
4. Secrets of the Dead: The Hunt for Nazi Scientists

5. Nova: Alien From Earth
http://video.pbs.org/
I suppose you can see that I have some special interests?

Edgar Allan Poe

My dastardly fellow blogger and friend J.D. will be pleased to know that an 1827 volume of Edgar Allen Poe's first book sold for 662,500 dollars last week. A collection of poems that Poe compiled at age 18, it's entitled: "Tamerlane and Other Poems." At the time Poe only published 50 copies. Apparently, there are only 12 first editions left in the big wide world.

Evil Woman

I came across these vintage advertisements about venereal disease. I was pretty struck by the fact that the ads are all slanted towards blaming the women for spreading the disease. I'm not a biologist, but, can't VD be spread by men too?