Thursday, June 05, 2025

Dream

I dreamed I was vacuuming in my cellar and I sucked up a huge spider the size of the vacuum cleaner bag. It was alive so I kept vacuuming and felt guilty.

Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Time to FIGHT for DEMOCRACY or leave the USA

I no longer recognize this country.

I am reading Navalny's memoir and it is amazing. 

With saviors like these, who needs enemies? Catherine Rampell

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. Henry David Thoreau: Walden

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. Henry David Thoreau

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth. Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. Ralph Waldo Emerson

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Always do what you are afraid to do.

 Ralph Waldo Emerson 

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. Henry David Thoreau

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. Henry David Thoreau

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. Henry David Thoreau

Monday, June 02, 2025

Prof. Feynman: If the purpose of education is to score well on a test, we've lost sight of the real reason for learning.

Buttermilk, Bleu Cheese and Mayo Salad Dressing

We made a small amount of this dressing with lowfat buttermilk, crumbled bleu cheese and a bloop of Hellmann's mayo and it was delicious on green salad and tri-color rotini pasta.

State Fair Lemonade By John Mitzewich

This lemonade recipe is for real, authentic, vintage lemonade —the kind you might enjoy on a hot summer day at one of those stands at the state fair. Most of us make lemonade just out of lemon juice, but as you may know, the oils in the lemon peel contain a tremendous amount of flavor, and once you drink this, you won't want to go back to drinking it how you used to.

Ingredients

Original recipe yields 6 servings

  • 6 lemons

  • 1 ¼ cups white sugar

  • 5 cups cold water

Directions

  1. Gather all ingredients.

  2. Wash lemons and peel off all the zest using a vegetable peeler; set peeled lemons aside. Add lemon zest to a bowl and cover with sugar; toss to combine. Cover and let sit for a minimum of 2 hours, or up to overnight.

  3. Bring water to a boil in a pot over high heat; turn off heat and pour in lemon-sugar mixture. Stir and let sit until sugar is completely dissolved, about 5 minutes.

  4. Pour through a mesh strainer back into the same bowl and discard the zest. Let cool to room temperature, 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. Cut lemons in half and squeeze juice into the bowl. Pour lemonade into a serving pitcher; cover and chill thoroughly before serving over ice, at least 2 hours.

Chef's Note

If your lemons are waxy, give them a good scrub under hot water.

Feel free to adjust the amounts of lemon juice and sugar.