Should I?

On the train there are notices posted everywhere to not put feet on the seats.

I am always tempted to ask people if they would like help from the Minnesota Literacy Council to learn how to read when they have their feet on the seats.

Should I or shouldn't I?  

They probably wouldn't even understand the passive-aggressive tone :P

A Fixer-Upper Gets Fixed

Rose the Gypsy recently saw a South Minneapolis house featured on TV - It was condemned but then someone purchased it for $1 and fixed it up.

So of course I had to go check it out:

You can read about the fixing up part here.

There are a number of lovely Victorian houses in this corner of town.  Quite a few of them have been lovingly restored.  The problem is they are too close to the freeway, and now a freeway expansion threatens the lot of them.  Info on the opposition to the expansion can be found here.

It's sad.  The neighborhood was full of stately homes, they built the freeway and destroyed the neighborhood, after which the houses fell into disrepair.  Then a bunch of people fixed up the houses.   Now the freeway is threatening them again.

~sigh~

I would also like to note that when The Girls were looking for a house one of the addresses they sent me was relatively close to the freeway and I said, "Don't look at anything that close to the freeway!"

Beauty vs Brains (not to mention brawn)

Beauty is so important for women in our world.

Pretending to be simple (read: dumb) was certainly encouraged in my day (mother: "you should let him win at backgammon" me: "why? I'm a better player").

Girl-child was introduced to someone new on Thanksgiving, and she told me afterward, "your daughter is lovely; so pretty" and I wanted to say, "yes, and smart and hardworking, and accomplished...just to mention a few of her not-skin-deep virtues"

And then I stumbled upon this in Salon this morning, about The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

"Any girl can look glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

Hedy Lamarr

Urban

I have been cleaning out email at work this afternoon and found this from last month - just watched it today.

Thanks to Linda, who sent it with the title, "How This Whole Blonde Thing Got Started."

I remember this show; I guess it was a precursor to today's reality TV.