I LOVE LEOPARD!

Somewhere in the second half of my life I fell in love with leopard. Inside this 65 year old body beats the heart of a 20 year old that would wear everything pictured below (even those leather pants :) 

images from Pinterest

The sensible part of me knows better and at this point "less is more"  I'm content with a few well chosen pieces. I am on the hunt for the perfect handbag and a perfect jacket.  I can't wait for the fall previews to arrive. Talbots has a leopard jacket coming out. I'm anxious to see how it fits :)

I had this HOBO in my hand and I walked away from it arguing with the voice in my head that said... "You just bought a HOBO and you don't need it"  

Leopard is NOT about "need"  

I would love to find this handbag. Wow!

Love these ladies leopard Wellies available from ...

http://www.daisy-roots.co.ukrainboots 

and the booties on "sale" at Nordstrom 

HISTORY OF THE HOT DOG! 

Nathan's Famous

With summer upon us and picnics and backyard grills in full bloom I thought it would be fun to tell the history of the hot dog.

Most historians agree that it dates back to the Roman Empire.  Nero's cook, Gaius, may have linked the first sausages. In those days it was customary to starve pigs for a week before they were slaughtered.  

On one occasion a pig had been fully roasted when it was discovered that it had not been cleaned. Gaius stuck his knife into the belly to see if it was edible and the intestines popped out.  They were empty because of the "starvation" and puffed from the heat.  Legend has it that he stuffed the intestines with ground meats mixed with spices... the sausage was created.

The Germans picked up on the idea, creating endless varieties. In Vienna sausages became popular and both the Germans and the Austrians claim to be the originators of the modern hot dog...  Frankfurt (the frankfurter) and Vienna (the wienerwurst)

Either way, it is agreed that German immigrants  were the first to capitalize on this commodity. Using pushcarts, they sold hot dogs on the streets of New York in the early 1900s.

Nathan and his wife

Interestingly enough, it was not a German or an Austrian that popularized the hot dog in America... it was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. 

Nathan Handwerker worked at a hot dog stand on Coney Island. He slept on the kitchen floor and lived on hot dogs for a year saving his $11.00 a week salary. 

When he had $300.00 he opened his own stand and changed the price from 10 cents a hot dog to 5 cents.  Customers flocked to him and he put his competitor out of business. "Nathan's Famous" was born.

The term "hot dog" was coined in 1902 when on a cold April day at a Giants baseball game in New York, the son of concessionaire Harry Mozley Stevens convinced his father to buy up all the dachshund sausages and rolls they could find. They were sold from portable hot water tanks while the vendors yelled... 

"They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while their hot"  

Up in the press box "Tad" Dorgan, a newspaper cartoonist heard the vendors and drew a cartoon of a frankfurter with a tail, legs and head.  It looked like a dachshund. He wasn't sure how to spell the word so he simply called it a "hot dog" The cartoon was a sensation and the name "hot dog" stuck!

(While most concede that this story is true, no one has been able to locate his sketch.)

Hot dogs became synonymous with Chicago during the Columbian Exposition of 1893.  Today ... we consume roughly 9 billion hot dogs a year.  That's a lot of BUNS!

The Original Nathan's Famous, still open at the same location on Coney Island, has held a hot dog eating contest every year since 1916.

Joey Chestnut, winner of this years contest, inhaled 61 hot dogs!

"SWEET SUZANNE" 

art of Beth Carver

Last week I read a post from a fellow blogger. She talked about how much she hates being referred to as "sweet"  A friend had offered her a compliment saying "Oh that was sweet of you" and another friend had said she was forgiving. This woman was not flattered. 

All of this made me wince. As a child I remember being called "Sweet Suzanne" I hated that title. When I left for college I was determined to be bold, to be seen as intelligent, to be a little sassy. 

I set out to change my image and  I succeeded. Now, on the other side of mid-life, having raised a family with two sons and three daughters, I have a very different perspective.

I truly value the peacemaker, the person who never speaks thoughtlessly, one who is full of kindness.

I don't think sweet means boring, or a loss of identity. It means we come at people, circumstances and problems in a gentle way... the calming force in a sea of drama. All these years later I approach each day with three goals... to be kind, to be patient and above all to censor what comes out of my mouth. 

It is a journey I continue to travel. It feels so good to leave work at the end of the day without regret. Life's a circle... I would love to be called "Sweet Suzanne" again.

I love this quote by T.S. Elliot... 

"... and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

"IN FLANDERS FIELDS"
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae MD 1872 - 1918

One last post to commemorate our freedom!
Have a blessed Sunday

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high. 
If ye break faith with us who dies
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

To this day, McCrae's "In Flanders Fields" remains one of the most memorable war poems ever written, a tribute to all the soldiers, before and since, who gave their lives for freedom. Thousands are buried in American cemeteries around the world. 

HYMN TO THE FALLEN 

by John Williams

I'M IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN...

"NEW" at www.toms.com

(online, type in code GETREADY and save $10.00)

It's not like I need another pair of Toms but still... I was smitten. Perfect for this summer and an easy transition into fall! Plaid gets me every time!  

When I was in the sixth grade there was a girl in my class that had a pair of KEDS in every imaginable color. It seemed like everyday she wore a different pair. I never said anything to anyone about it but you can be sure I watched. With so many children in my family I knew it would remain a "wish"  

I hadn't thought about that for years and years until the 5th and 6th grade girls at school starting commenting about my TOMS. "How many pair do you own?" they asked.  I would never tell them. If I showed up wearing a new pair I was the topic of discussion in the East wing. 

I was honestly surprised and a little embarrassed.  Then one day it dawned on me what I was doing.  I had fulfilled a "childhood dream" I own a LOT of Toms in an array of colors and prints. It started because they are so comfortable and my bunions don't hurt and of course there's the philanthropy thing, but then... it just took off.  

Dreams do come true... sometimes it just takes a little while!

TOMS... what's not to LOVE!

THE LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION
Arturo Chacon Cruz and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

GEORGE WASHINGTON... 

"We cannot, Sir, do without you"

                                               image from pinterest

For the last seven years I have been telling stories to the five hundred students in the Charter School where I work as the librarian. The satisfaction I have felt has turned into a passion for showing these children how truly amazing this world is. 

We all fell in love with Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk that took up residency in Central Park. 

I marveled at the story of the Great Serum run of 1925 and I was blown away as I tried to piece together accurate facts for our great historical events. 



My first year I had a wonderful library aide that quickly became a "friend"  She was Native American and when Thanksgiving rolled around she looked at me and said...

"If you're going to tell that old Thanksgiving story, you'd better get your facts straight" I was shocked... weren't my facts straight? They were not and what I learned, as I studied and read, opened up a whole new world for me. 

So when I approached President's Day it was with excitement, knowing that I was about to see things in a new way. The history of Abraham Lincoln was so LARGE.  He was truly a "giant" of a man. I had to dig a little deeper before I would appreciate and understand more about George Washington. I kept asking myself... "Why is he so beloved" This is what I found...

In the spring of 1782 American patriots were still celebrating Washington's victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown.  The Revolutionary War appeared to be over. 

Only months after Yorktown, people began to talk about the need for a strong leader to put things in order. Nowhere was the talk more common than among the men in Washington's Army. Colonel Lewis Nicola feared that democracy would not work and proposed that Washington become King.



"Banish these thoughts from your mind" was Washington's reply. He reluctantly accepted the presidency when Jefferson told him...

"We cannot, Sir, do without you"

This is where I got stuck.  Weren't there many capable men who could have filled that position?  Why is it that Washington was unanimously elected? 

Compared to other political leaders of his time such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, Washington was far from outstanding.  He had little formal education. He knew no foreign languages and had never even traveled to Europe. Personally aloof, even cold, he was not a great thinker, writer or speaker. Still he places near or at the top of the list of great American presidents.

Washington's genius, his greatness, lay in his character.  It was this moral character that set him apart from other men.  He had firm personal and political principles and he stuck to them.

Unlike other founding fathers, Washington was a true "non-partisan" He hated it when people divided into hostile groups and he avoided taking sides during political disputes. 

During the heated debates at the Constitutional Convention he used his considerable prestige to calm people down and get them back to their main objective... creating a new form of government. 

He was the perfect choice for unifying all of the diverse personalities and holding our fledgling government together.

 painting by Arnold Friberg

I think his Eulogy, delivered December 26, 1799 by Henry Lee, best describes why he was so loved and respected...

"First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate and sincere, uniform, dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues... such was the man for whom our nation mourns."  Henry Lee was a cavalry officer in the American Revolution and the father of Robert E. Lee

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

During his resignaton speech in 1783 Washington said...

"I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my Official life, by commending the interests of our dearest Country to the protection of Almighty God."