gold

Gold is in the news this week, so it's got me reflecting on this amazing metal.


Did you hear, some German diggers think they've found the Nazi Gold "Amber Room"? Yes, it's supposed to have 2 tons of gold, hidden away at the end of WWII.


Also, it was this time of year, 160 years ago, that the California Gold Rush began.


We bought the earrings in the top photo, designed by Ed Levin, at Mackerel Sky In East Lansing, a great shop for goods made by local and not-so-local craftspeople. They're my favorite earrings, I wear them all the time.



The page they're resting on is from the 1926 edition of the World Book encyclopedia, for which my grandma Olive was an illustrator. It should read "BENNETT, OLIVE N." not "M." Her middle name was her maiden name, Nelson. I kept my maiden name as my middle name too. I didn't want to give up the name I'd spent 21 years with.



Click on the images to see the details better.



The illustrators didn't sign their work, so we don't know which illustrations Olive drew. I've seen a lot of her work, and this is typical, so it could be hers.

I chose the page at the top because of the information about gold. Notice it says all of the world's money in 1926 was based on $8 billion in gold, except for a few paper currencies. It wasn't too long after that year, in 1932, that President Roosevelt disconnected the US dollar from the Gold Standard so he could get the mint to print more currency and ease the Depression. Gold was taken out of circulation as coins, and that's when Fort Knox became a depository for the gold.


If you want to hear interesting information on manipulation of the gold market by central banks to make their paper currencies seem stronger, check this out.

In light of the depreciation of the US Dollar (the Euro against the dollar reached $1.52 yesterday), maybe we should invest in more Ed levin jewelry, hehe.


Let me end with this Ron Sexsmith/Chris Martin video of "Gold in Them Hills." (Thanks, Peter.)

update

As expected, Hal Holbrook was not chosen for the Oscar for best supporting actor, it was Javier Bardem for his role in "No Country for Old Men."

Here's a photo from the http://www.oscar.com/ site, with his wife Dixie Carter last night before the show.

Did anyone else think that was the most boring Oscar show ever? I expected more for the 80th, maybe a fabulous montage of Oscar's history at least. I liked the video clips from earlier decades' shows. Maybe the writers' strike is the reason this show was sub-par. Even Jon Stewart seemed a little off, although a few of his lines were funny, like this one from his opening monologue:

"Normally, when you see a black man or a woman president an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty."

Hal Holbrook and Oscar

I mostly remember Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain. No wonder, since he’s performed that guy for 40 years on stage and TV. He won a Tony for the Mark Twain role. He’s won lots of Emmys, including one for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. Oh, and I remember his mouth from “All the President’s Men” in which he played Deep Throat, the mysterious informant to Bob Woodward/Robert Redford.

He said on NPR the other day that even though he’s performed Twain thousands of times, the humorist icon’s words still make him laugh. Such as: "We are all erring creatures, and mainly idiots, but God made us so and it is dangerous to criticise.”

At 83, Holbrook's got his first Oscar nomination for tomorrow night’s awards, for his supporting role in Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild,” based on a true story. Holbrook plays one of the characters Chris McCandless meets while he's hitchhiking to Alaska after giving his life savings away, burning all his identification and worrying his parents sick. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my Netflix queue for when it’s released on DVD March 4.

Holbrook was nominated for the Broadcast Film Critics award and the Screen Actors Guild award too, losing to Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" for both. Even though sometimes Oscars are awarded to those who deserve praise after such a long and respectable career, I'm guessing the results of this nomination will be the same as the other two.

Here’s a YouTube video of Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain, recorded in 1967. This is one of my best images and memories of growing up in the US: an actor of good sense and humor playing an author of good sense and humor, although this particular short clip is not humorous.

eclipse

Click on images to enlarge (I think one doesn't work though). I also posted the last image at my photoblog flying.

It was perfectly clear. What are the chances of that for two total eclipses in a row within seven months?

It was cold, but not as cold as I expected. It was just 10°F (-11°C).

See how in the second image, where the eclipse is partial, the shadow is black. But as the shadow of the earth eclipsed the moon further, the shadow became more red, being affected by the earth's atmosphere, and because the light faded, allowing the red to be more visible. So the final image is when the moon is almost totally eclipsed, even though it just looks like a red harvest moon. I didn't see any turquoise, as the NASA site suggested in yesterday's post. It was too cold to stay out for the whole totality (until 10:30pm or so).

lunar

Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 20 will be the last total lunar eclipse for the next three years.

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This photo was from the last one in August 2007. It was a nice warm clear early morning with coffee and my Bishop. Tomorrow from 8:30pm until midnight when the eclipse will transpire, it will be 3°F (-17°C) and possibly cloudy. Rather than sit with coffee and my tripod, I'll likely have to stand the tripod and snap, then take the camera back into the house until the next phase. If the camera batteries get too cold, the camera won't function. Not to speak of me.

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This NASA site says the moon will turn red (because of the earth's atmosphere) and there might even be a bit of turquoise around the edges (passing through the ozone layer, the red will be filtered out, making it look turquoise blue). The turquoise should show up at the beginning and ending of the totality, around 10:01 and 10:51pm EST. "Maximum beauty" should be around 10:26pm EST.

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I'm sorry to say my friends in India won't be able to see much of this eclipse, apparently.

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I'm hoping for a clear sky and a functioning camera.

broken

Some things around here were broken when I got them. Like a couple of statues that were my grandma's.

And this cognac bottle. We don't drink the cognac (too sweet). We just like the bottle and the color of cognac.

This necklace Lesley made for me broke all by itself. I swear. I love it, and I need to get it restrung.





This lamp stands by my dressing table, I don't know whose finger poked through this old silk lampshade. My dad had a collection of lamps. You wouldn't believe what a lamp fetish he had. I think we have four floor lamps out in the shed that are waiting for shades or new wiring that were his. Anyway, this one was my dad's, and probably my grandma's before that. I know, it should probably be in the shed.

This bowl got broken at Thanksgiving after the mashed potatoes were eaten, before it had a chance to get washed. I bought this Old English Johnson Brothers set at an old farm auction when Don and I were first married, and I got the whole 12-place-setting and multiple serving dish set for $55. I didn't know until later that I was bidding against my sister-in-law, who was standing behind me. This bowl only cost me a few cents, but I was sorry to see it break after all those years the old farmer woman had it and didn't break it.

I hope our kids will like some of these things when we're gone. Living with old worn and repaired treasures reminds me of the people who lived before me and used these things, admired them, dusted them, washed them, and shone light through them.

Happy Balumtine'th Day

Dave Barnes is a nice singer songwriter Peter just told us about, who also has comedic videos out on YouTube, like this one for Balumtine'th Day.

When you finish watching this one, wait and see the scroll of others at the bottom of the video box.

♥

Valentine's Day thoughts

Faust. You’ll never reach the heart
unless you speak from the heart.

Wagner. But it’s beautiful language
that makes an orator succeed.
I’m way behind on that score.

Faust. You’ve got to look for honest accomplishment!
Don’t be a fool with gaudy expressions!
The right kind of intelligence and good sense

[and love]

will come with little art and strain.

from Goethe's Faust
(my paraphrase and added [and love])

cleaning greenly

I could make a natural all purpose cleaner with Borax, vinegar and water. But I'm lazy.

Don't think I'm promoting (hehe), because I haven't tried these yet, but Clorox, yes Clorox, has just come out with a line of environmentally safe cleaning products called Green Works, derived from coconuts and lemon oil. What I'm happy about, besides being able to pick these up at Meijer when I do my regular grocery shopping, is that a major commercial brand has launched this, at last. Can others be far behind? I'm happy that the market is being driven toward environmentally safe and sustainable products.

Clorox bought Burt's Bees last November, and you have to wonder, along with the writer of this NYTimes article, if their all natural bent influenced the new owners. Mmmm, Burt's Bees lip balm, made with bees wax and almond oil. I love it. Some people got ticked off that Burt's Bees "sold out." I don't worry too much about that.

The Sierra Club has endorsed this line of cleaning products, the first time they've ever done so.

super super fat

See what I'm huffing about today.

she lay down

At her feet we've gathered morel mushrooms. Morels love to sprout under old apple trees. In the photo above you can see her branch that broke off last year in the foreground.

We think she lay down to rest in the 40 mph wind (64 km per hour) Wednesday, without our knowing. I walked out today in the fresh snow, and there she was. She died quietly in our sleep.

See the stump on the left? The bark broke right off, leaving a hollow that we'd like to preserve for the chickens Don has ordered to arrive in April. When they're outside the coop, out in the fenced pen, they will like to crawl into our dear old woman's skin to get out of the sun.

I would also like to build something else with her wood. And see the "S" reaching up? Don thinks that would make a nice perch inside the henhouse.

Thanks to Swedehart and Loring, I learned about the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Pine Tree." It's short, you can read it in a few minutes:

"If I only could have been happy while I had the chance to be."