to die unexpectedly

popped off; popping off; pops off

Definition of pop off

intransitive verb

1a : to die unexpectedly

b : to leave suddenly

2 : to talk thoughtlessly and often loudly or angrily

Rufus: The Bat Who Loved Colors

by Tomi Ungerer

 published in 1961

Tomi Ungerer’s classic tale about a bat who learns to embrace his differences through friendship.

Like all bats, Rufus sees life in black and white, until he chances upon an outdoor movie theatre and is awakened to the dazzling world of colours for the first time.

Inspired and excited, Rufus paints his own wings and ventures out into the day, only to discover that his unusual appearance attracts unwelcome attention.

Though he is initially rejected for his difference, Rufus soon learns to accept himself for who he is, thanks to a new friend.

Beautifully written and illustrated by the legendary Tomi Ungerer.

Porch Visit

We had our first spontaneous porch visitor yesterday. Brenda Lee was walking home from the Blackstone shopping center and I invited her up and we chatted with her for a few hours. Romeo was at the screen door and barked to come out and join us. He never barks. Then he did a happy dance to be with her. I've never seen him so happy. Bill said Auntie Brenda has a big happy voice and Romeo responded.

Snowflake

 There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness itself.  Montiaigne

No snowflake falls in an inappropriate place.     Zen Proverb

 

DEM invites Rhode Islanders to 'quiet fireworks' at Beavertail State Park

Jack Perry

The Providence Journal

Saturday

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management is promoting an event for people who "love fireworks but can't stand the noise."

It's inviting people, and dogs, to watch Newport's Fourth of July fireworks at Fort Adams State Park from Beavertail State Park in Jamestown.

"All the 'oohh' without the 'ahhh' - watch the fireworks in Newport from Jamestown. The distance lets you enjoy the show without the loud noise. This event is great for individuals with hearing sensitivities," the DEM says in a Facebook post.

The show should start around 9:15 p.m. July 4.

The park usually closes at sunset, but the DEM says it's inviting people to stay later to enjoy the show. It's free. The park has plenty of parking in lots 3 and 4 and registrations is not necessary, the DEM says.

 

10,000 Shades of Green

 Listening to every Greg Brown song ever made (on youtube). Loving the 56 degree day. We just walked ROMEO in the rain in the park. 10,000 shades of green after dropping off bread for a grieving friend.

Greg Brown

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb2wuSExBQA&list=PLKF1TIbZowKo-KAlxJ6BbnEIRNnaKRdDg&index=27

It’s the birthday of M.F.K. Fisher

It’s the birthday of M.F.K. Fisher (1908) (books by this author), born Mary Frances

Kennedy in Albion, Michigan. She’s the mother of the “food essay” and always viewed 
cuisine as a metaphor for culture. She grew up in Whittier, California, and met her 
future husband, Alfred Young Fisher, at the University of Southern California in 1929. 
They spent the first three years of their marriage in Dijon, France, and she referred to 
that period as the “shaking and making years in [her] life.”

She found an Elizabethan cookbook at her public library, and was inspired to try her hand 
at food writing. Her first book, Serve It Forth (1937), was full of sensual, evocative 
prose and some critics assumed a man had written it. Her 1941 book, How to Cook a Wolf, 
was addressed to Americans and Europeans dealing with rationing and food shortages during 
World War II. In it she wrote, “When the wolf is at the door one should invite him in and 
have him for dinner.” It has a few recipes, but it mostly contains meditations on the 
role of meals in relationships, and on sharing limited resources with spiritual 
abundance. Her chapter titles include “How to Distribute Your Virtue,” “How to Greet the 
Spring,” “How to Be Cheerful Through Starving,” and “How to Have a Sleek Pelt.”

Author Anne Lamott wrote the introduction to an edition of Fisher’s letters. “Hers was a 
face anyone would naturally want in the kitchen, a combination of fresh peach and aged 
potato,” Lamott wrote. “You could see the weight and warmth and softness of her 
cheeks—the tender part a mother would cup in her hands—now grown so old.”

Writer's Almanac 

Letter to Lindsey Heatherly

I don't need drugs because my built in chemistry does a fine job of taking me around. People pay money to feel how I am feeling! And it will pass. I can't hold it, just enjoy it!

And I don't need to travel because I go around the world on planet earth every night. She spins and I wake up breathing Chinese air. (I said that as a kid)

Greg Brown: Let the Mystery Be

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoO7sO4xmng

Let The Mystery Be

Greg Brown

 

Everybody's wonderin' what and where
They all came from
Everybody's worried about where they're gonna go
When the whole thing's done

But no one knows for certain
So it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be

Some say once you're gone, you're gone forever
Some say you're gonna come back
Some say you rest in the arms of the Savior
If in sinful ways you lack

Some say they're comin' back in the garden
Bunch of carrots and little sweet peas
I think I'll just let the mystery be

Some say they're goin' to a place called Glory
And I ain't sayin' that ain't a fact
But I've heard I'm on the road to purgatory
And I don't like the sound of that

Well, I believe in…

Oh, everybody's wonderin' what and where
They all came from
Everybody's worried about where they're gonna go
When the whole thing's done

But no one knows for certain
So it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be

Source: Musixmatch

 

Happy Birthday M.F.K. Fisher

The Nose Knows!

video  https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09mw5sp/why-single-people-smell-different

text https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210621-why-single-people-smell-different

Thrill & Taboo!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/03/caitlin-moran-on-how-to-be-a-woman-it-was-a-thrill-to-rifle-through-the-box-marked-taboos

Claudia Rankine Quotes

“Memory is a tough place. You were there.”
― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric 

“Yes, and the body has memory. The physical carriage hauls more than its weight. The body is the threshold across which each objectionable call passes into consciousness—all the unintimidated, unblinking, and unflappable resilience does not erase the moments lived through, even as we are eternally stupid or everlastingly optimistic, so ready to be inside, among, a part of the games.”
― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric 

“When you arrive in your driveway and turn off the car, you remain behind the wheel another ten minutes. You fear the night is being locked in and coded on a cellular level and want time to function as a power wash. Sitting there staring at the closed garage door you are reminded that a friend once told you there exists the medical term—John Henryism—for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism. They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure. Sherman James, the researcher who came up with the term, claimed the physiological costs were high. You hope by sitting in silence you are bucking the trend.”
― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

“Another friend tells you you have to learn not to absorb the world. She says sometimes she can hear her own voice saying silently to whomever—you are saying this thing and I am not going to accept it. Your friend refuses to carry what doesn’t belong to her.”
― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

“because white men can't
police their imagination
black men are dying”
― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric 

Claudia Rankine

 “The past is a life sentence, a blunt instrument aimed at tomorrow.”

― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

Principals of Ethical Conduct

 

USA TODAY NETWORK Principles of Ethical Conduct For Newsrooms

USA TODAY Network’s Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms includes concepts and language developed by the Radio and Television Digital News Association, other Gannett documents and a group of Gannett executives and journalists. These principles are designed to guide journalists working with any news platform, including newspapers, websites, mobile devices, video, social media channels and live story events.

WE ARE COMMITTED TO:

I. Seeking and reporting the truth in a truthful way

• We will be honest in the way we gather, report and present news - with relevancy, persistence, context, thoroughness, balance, and fairness in mind.
• We will seek to gain understanding of the communities, individuals and issues we cover to provide an informed account of activities.
• We will hold factual information in editorials and other opinion pieces to the same standards of accuracy as news stories.
• We will treat information from unofficial sources, which may include social media, with skepticism and will seek to corroborate information.
• When considering news content created outside of the Network, we will factor the credibility of the source and weigh the value and accuracy of information provided.

II. Serving the public interest

• We will uphold First Amendment principles to serve the democratic process.
• We will be vigilant watchdogs of government and institutions that affect the public, fighting to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in public.
• We will seek solutions as well as expose problems and wrongdoing in order to effect change for the good in the communities we serve.
• We will provide public forums for diverse people and views.
• We will reflect and encourage understanding of the diverse segments of our community.
• We will provide editorial and community leadership.
• We will seek to promote understanding of complex issues.
• When sharing editorials and other opinion articles, we will encourage and promote views that foster understanding, insight and civil discourse. We seek to offer viewpoints that represent various views on a particular topic.
• We will consider providing free access to some news coverage during public safety emergencies and as a public service when appropriate, such as elections.

III. Exercising fair play

• We will treat people with respect and compassion.
• We will correct errors promptly.
• We will strive to include all sides relevant to a story. When news develops and we can’t include important perspectives immediately, we will share updates, including additional sources, when possible. We also will share attempts to reach sources who add value to the story.
• We will explain to audiences our journalistic processes to promote transparency and engagement.
• We will give particular attention to fairness in relations with people unaccustomed to dealing with the news media.
• We will use confidential sources as the sole basis for published information only as a last resort and under specific procedures that best serve the public’s right to know.

IV. Maintaining independence

• We will remain free of outside interests, investments or business relationships that may compromise the credibility of our news reporting.
• We will maintain an impartial, arm’s-length relationship with anyone seeking to influence the news.
• We will not support political campaigns or causes through the display of bumper stickers, signs, pins, public/private donations, participation in demonstrations, petitions or in social media posts.
• Individual viewpoints that might cause readers to question our impartiality in news coverage should remain private. This principle does not apply to those who are paid to write and share opinion.
• We will avoid potential conflicts of interest and eliminate inappropriate influence on content.
• We will be free of improper obligations to news sources, newsmakers and advertisers.
• We will not blur the line between advertising and editorial content. We will provide appropriate disclosures, exercise transparency and avoid actual or implicit commercial endorsements by our journalists.
• When sponsorships of news are appropriate, we will not allow them to determine, change or restrict content.

V. Acting with integrity

• We will act honorably and ethically in dealing with news sources, the public and our colleagues.
• We will obey the law.
• We will observe standards of decency.
• We will take responsibility for our decisions and consider the possible consequences of our actions.
• We will be conscientious in observing these principles.
• We will use technological tools with skill and thoughtfulness, avoiding approaches that skew facts, distort reality, or sensationalize events.
• We will not plagiarize or fabricate information.
• We will not alter photos, video or audio to misrepresent events or mislead audiences.

Dr Ludwig Guttmann

Sir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann CBE FRS (3 July 1899 – 18 March 1980) was a German-born British neurologist who established the Paralympic Games in England.

Boom Boom!

 

Asthma Allergies Pollen and Rain

 https://community.aafa.org/blog/how-does-rain-affect-pollen-levels

rush and throb

Yes, I get dry spells. Sometimes I can't turn out a thing for three months. When one of those spells comes on I quit trying to work and go out and see something of life. You can't write a story that's got any life in it by sitting at a writing table and thinking. You've got to get out into the streets, into the crowds, talk with people, and feel the rush and throb of real life—that's the stimulant for a story writer.

O. HENRY