When we’re under the spell of a compelling story, we undergo internal changes along with the protagonist, and her insights become part of the way we, too, see the world. Stories instill meaning directly into our belief system the same way experience does—not by telling us what is right, but by allowing us to feel it ourselves. Because just like life, story is emotion based. As Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert said, “Indeed, feelings don’t just matter, they are what mattering means.” In life, if we can’t feel emotion, we can’t make a single rational decision—it’s biology. In a story, if we’re not feeling, we’re not reading. It is emotion, rather than logic, that telegraphs meaning, thus emotion is what your novel must be wired to transmit, straight from the protagonist to us.

LISA CRON

Philip Larkin: Novelists need to travel, poets re-create the familiar.

increase access to water for drinking and swimming

To live a good life: We have the potential for it. If we can learn to be indifferent to what makes no difference. Marcus Aurelius

Todd Henson Photographs of Bolivian Dancers

https://toddhensonphotography.com/blog/individual-dancers-2017-bolivian-festival-manassas- va 

The annual Festival de la Virgen de Urkupiña (Fraternidad Folklorica Boliviana)

Festival Schedule & Highlights

Saturday, August 8: Mass at 12:00 PM at St. Patrick's Church on Smith Street, followed by a procession and afternoon celebrations on the State House lawn.
Sunday, August 9: Main cultural performances, traditional dances, and food vendors on the State House lawn starting in the afternoon.
Attractions: Over 400 dancers in traditional, colorful folk costumes, community gatherings, and displays of faith and heritage.  
The annual Festival de la Virgen de Urkupiña with (Fraternidad Folklorica Boliviana) is a two-day cultural event held this weekend (August 8–9, 2026) at the Rhode Island State House lawn in Providence. Organized by the RI Bolivian-American Association, the festival features traditional music, vibrant folkloric dances like Caporales and Morenada, a religious procession starting from St. Patrick's Church, and authentic Bolivian food. 

Mezzetta Kalamata Olives

 

Dawn's Early Light

This morning a woman was sitting on my garden stairs as I walked by with my dogs. She was all excited to meet them. She had a tattoo on her cheek, script writing in pink and blue around her right eye, and a huge green bruise on her forehead the size of an orange. Are you okay? I asked. Thanks I'm fine. I mentioned her bruise and she said she fell roller skating. "Oh I love roller skating," I said. "I was drunk," she said. Oh. I had my doubts. Then she reminded me that she sees me all the time and is my neighbor around the corner.

She had been doing something, assembling something moments before we saw her and I knew it was preparing drugs for injection. We said goodbye and when I was inside I said to my husband I will go check on her in a few minutes. I did and she was nodding off. I phoned dispatch. Later I received notification from the RI Dept of Health of an escalation of overdoses in our city.

A Bridge Will Help Humans and Lions Coexist in Los Angeles

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/wildlife-overpass-los-angeles-lions-p22/

Music is my Aeroplane

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4UrX_CjVhU

who doesn't want to be the master of their own microbial universe?

 Making sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough, buttermilk, yogurt, and more...

https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-fermented-sauerkraut-recipe 

“Mata Hari” is a Malay term for the sunrise, and means “the eye of the day.”

It’s the birthday of the Dutch dancer and spy Mata Hari, born Margaretha Zelle in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (1876). She attended a teachers college and then married an army officer, Captain Rudolph MacLeod, in 1895. They lived in Java and Sumatra for a few years, and that’s where she picked up her eventual byname. “Mata Hari” is a Malay term for the sunrise, and means “the eye of the day.” The MacLeod marriage was marked by infidelity on both sides. He gave her syphilis, which was in turn inherited by their two children. After their son died, the parents began to hate each other. They returned to Holland and divorced, and MacLeod took out an ad in the local paper telling shopkeepers not to give his ex-wife any credit, because he would not be supporting her any longer. In order to make some money, she began dancing professionally in Paris in 1905, and occasionally worked in a high-class brothel.

The exact nature of her spy activities is not clear, but she probably didn’t engage in much actual espionage. She was well known by sight all over Europe. She had apparently sold some outdated information about France to the Germans in 1916, and then later made a deal with the head of French intelligence to spy on the Germans in exchange for a pass to visit her Russian lover in the eastern war zone. The French became suspicious that she was a double agent, and she never was able to provide much useful information, so she was tried, convicted, and executed by firing squad in 1917. One of her prosecutors later admitted, “There wasn’t enough evidence [against her] to flog a cat.” 

WRITER'S ALMANAC

Humility is the surest sign of strength. Thomas Merton

Alfred Lord Tennyson: If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.

Live your life, do your work, then take your hat. Henry David Thoreau

What we call fiction is the ancient way of knowing, the total discourse that antedates all the special vocabularies.... Fiction is democratic, it reasserts the authority of the single mind to make and remake the world.

E.L. DOCTOROW

 Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe. Imagine, if you like, Frankenstein’s monster on its slab. Here comes lightning, not from the sky but from a humble paragraph of English words. Maybe it’s the first really good paragraph you wrote, something so fragile and yet full of possibility that you are frightened. You feel as Victor Frankenstein must have when the dead conglomeration of sewn-together spare parts suddenly opened its watery yellow eyes. Oh my God, it’s breathing, you realize. Maybe it’s even thinking. What in hell’s name do I do next?

STEPHEN KING

New AI Chatbot Turns Out to Be One Overworked Guy Answering All the Messages by Hand "You ask a question, and a person named Tucker reads it, thinks about it, and writes back when awake and motivated." By Maggie Harrison Dupré

 https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-chatbot-one-overworked-guy

Make your own Pumpkin Spice

Core Spices

Cinnamon: Provides the sweet, woody base of the blend.Nutmeg: Adds a nutty, sweet warmth.Ginger: Brings a sharp, earthy kick.Cloves: Offers a strong, pungent, and sweet flavor.

Common Additions: Allspice: Adds a complex flavor similar to a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.Cardamom or mace: Sometimes included in small amounts for extra depth.

Fall River shop claims title as world’s largest dollhouse store, with 100-plus homes

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by CATE HANEWICH, NBC 10 NEWS

Wed, August 5, 2026 at 6:24 PM

4VIEW ALL PHOTOS

Flip This Dollhouse in Fall River is the world's largest dollhouse shop, with more than 100 dollhouses and thousands of miniature furniture pieces. (WJAR)

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WJAR) — A Massachusetts man turned his passion for restoring old dollhouses into a career and now runs the world's largest dollhouse shop.

Flip This Dollhouse in Fall River is the world's largest dollhouse shop, with more than 100 dollhouses and thousands of miniature furniture pieces.

"When I was a little boy, I wanted a dollhouse more than anything," Flip This Dollhouse owner Nathaniel Ellis said. "I pinch myself that this is what I do for work."

Ellis began flipping used dollhouses in a laundry room 24 years ago as a hobby.

Flip This Dollhouse owner Nathaniel Ellis spoke with NBC 10's Cate Hanewich about the store. (WJAR)

"I would fix them up and figure out what their story was," Ellis said.

After 15 years in business and restoring hundreds of dollhouses, Flip This Dollhouse has become known around the world.

"I didn't think it was going to end up being the largest dollhouse shop in the world. But here we are, and I couldn't be happier," Ellis said.

The shop has more than 100 dollhouses for sale, ranging from $99 for smaller homes to $25,000 for its largest mansion.

"That one is pretty big. It's like 22 rooms, and it's the size of an elephant," Ellis said.

Each house has its own story, filled with intricate details.

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"I figure out what speaks to me about the house, what's going to be the story or the theme or the design style," Ellis said. "Sometimes I like to make it look lived in and like something's happening — maybe a party or some sort of event."

Ellis said restoring some of the dollhouses, which date back to the 1880s, can take months.

"Flooring, wallpaper, furniture, rugs, curtains, lighting — everything has to coordinate," Ellis said.

The dollhouses and antique miniatures have attracted visitors from around the world. Some pieces from the shop were even featured in the backdrop of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

Dollhouses and antique miniatures. (WJAR)

The backdrop showed miniature pieces from the Fall River shop on fire as part of the show's visuals.

"I actually went and saw her concert in the theater, and it shows the dollhouse burning down, and I was so excited," Ellis said.

The shop gives people of all ages the opportunity to experience dollhouses.

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"The little boy in me wanted a dollhouse growing up. Now I get to see little boys and girls come into my shop and get a dollhouse at 4 or 5 years old. So that is very rewarding," Ellis said.