Okay, Here's My Cunning Plan....

Over the past 36 hours, I've seen most of my favorite AOL Journals taken private with no readers, or filled with angry postings. Some of you have already started an alternative blog or journal on BlogSpot or elsewhere. There are two major drawbacks to doing this:

1. Frankly, the Blogger templates have columns that are too narrow to do photos well. For the last year and a half I've been trying to tweak Messages from Mâvarin so that the main column is wider, and I've ended up with something that looks fine in Netscape but horrible in IE (and I don't know how it looks in Firefox or Safari). Steven, Becky, anyone: can you help me with this?



2. More important: in some cases we've spent years building a readership with comments and Weekend Assignments, Monday Photo Shoots and Round Robin Challenges, Saturday Six, Blog Explosion and plain old hard work. When we move to BlogSpot, we are back to square one. For example, here are my Technorati stats for Musings and Outpost, as of Wednesday at 7:22 PM MST:

Musings from Mâvarin

Rank: 26,175 (414 links from 68 sites)

Outpost Mâvarin

Rank: 938,770 (0 links from 0 sites)

Now, I know for a fact that there are at least two links to Outpost, but the point remains. We're starting over.

For this reason, I'm extremely reluctant to abandon Musings forever. I expect some of you feel the same way. You don't want to leave yet, in case something good happens, in case it blows over, in case it turns out that staying is the best alternative.

Allow me to suggest something we can do in the meantime: a multi-user blog! We could call it J-Land in Exile or something like that. One person would start it, and other people would be signed up as members. All members would be able to post on the blog. It would give people a forum while waiting for a resolution to the current mess, and help to keep the community together, and provide for more readers than a new solo effort. Then as people hang out their own shingles, the group blog (I think it's called a mob blog) would help to build a readership for those, too.

Now, if I were the one to start the thing, I would impose a few rules, a sort of watered down version of TOS: no personal attacks, no overt bigotry, no explicit sex. This would be for the protection of the blog members, and to keep things reasonably pleasant. (And of course, you can always start your own blog without such strictures, subject to the provider's terms and conditions.)

Who could get in as members and start posting? Why, anyone who asks, of course! Again, if I'm the one to start it, I'll reserve the right to lock out anyone who gets to egregious in the personal attacks and such. However, unlike AOL, I wouldn't do it capriciously, without investigation, or without contacting the people involved first.



Well? Whaddaya think? Hello?

[Insert sound of crickets here.]

Karen

Two Quick Things...

...before I dash back to work:

1. Sign the petition:

http://gopetition.com/online/7527.html

2. Patrick has a clearinghouse for forwarding links:

http://journals.aol.com/pattboy92/TheGreatExodus/

I have an interesting idea. I'll tell you about it tonight!

Karen

Welcome to the Outpost!

Like any outpost, this may be abandoned eventually, or it may grow into something big and lively and permanent. It all depends on whether AOL backs off from the banner ads that have sent half of AOL J-Land packing in less than a day.

Until and unless that happens, this will be my main blog / journal. Even so, Musings from Mâvarin will remain up and running and public, for at least a while. I have over 500 entries there, a decent readership and Technorati rating, and AOL on dial-up as my only online access.

Honestly, I don't even care that much about the banner ads over there. The darn things are ubiquitous anyway, so I had no great expectations about Musings remaining banner-free. What I do resent is that AOL callously disregarded the feelings and expectations of thousands of active journalers, and destroyed over two years of community-building in less than a day. I'll bet that by now, over half the VIVI nominees have at least a toe in the water on other blogging services. A dear friend has taken her three journals private so that NOBODY can read them. The same has been done by other people with other journals I read. It's a damn shame - and you know that I don't use words like "damn" likely.

Time to dip this particular toe in the water and see how cold it is. Back in a bit.

Karen

Photos on a theme:



Exodus.



Loss. (This is the maquette for the bear that used to sing Blood on the Saddle in the Country Bear Jamboree. But the Jamboree is no more, at least at Disneyland. It was the very last attraction Walt Disney approved at the drawing board stage - the day before he died. The attraction was originally for a resort that never got off the ground.)

Post Musings forwarding entry - check.
Add photos to this entry - check.
Claim this blog in Technorati - check.
Add link from LiveJournal - check.

Remember, people: if you're started a non-AOL blog to be your main one, please post your link! I'll add it to the sidebar. And I'd appreciate it if you would do the same for me!

A Childhood Full of Books

Thursday, October 20, 2005
10:29:00 PM MST
A Childhood Full of Books

Weekend Assignment #82: What was your favorite bedtime story as a child?

Extra Credit: As an adult, have you shared that favorite bedtime story with a child?

This may sound strange, coming from someone who owns thousands of books, including at least a hundred kids' books; but I don't recall ever being read to at bedtime. That's right; I said ever, E-V-E-R. While it may have happened, all my memories are of me doing the reading, with or without adult assistance, and doing so by daylight. I don't know why. That's just what I remember.

But that's not to say that I don't have fond memories of early encounters with particular books:


I remember Mrs. Livingston reading Winnie-the-Pooh to our first grade class, and my grandmother's subsequent gift to me of her personal copy of the book, printed in 1945. I still have it, dark with age and cigarettes, worn and dog-eared.

I remember how much I loved One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Still do. I bought it again as an adult, but it's hiding from me just at the moment. I can still recite two of the poems in it from memory, but I'll try not to do so now. My two other Dr. Seuss favorites were Green Eggs and Ham (I told you about my dad making green eggs and ham for me, remember?) and Ten Apples Up on Top. The latter book is attributed to Theo LeSieg, not Dr. Seuss, but that's just another variant name for good old Ted Geisel. I think he didn't put the Seuss name on books unless he did the illustrations.

I remember reading something called Little Dog Tim over and over in the school library in first grade.


I remember getting and reading my brother's hand-me-down Whitman books of Tom Sawyer and of Howard Pyle's Robin Hood. I think I got Black Beauty for Christmas or my birthday. Other beloved hand-me-down books from Steve were Sunnybank: Home of Lad and Further Adventures of Lad by Albert Payson Terhune; and another Whitman book, Lassie and The Secret of the Summer. I read the Lassie book so many times that I can still tell you that Jeff's favorite musician, according to the book, was someone named Dan Dawson. But I had to wonder, who the heck was Jeff? Lassie's proper owner was Timmy, in my experience.

I remember reading a biography of Henry Ford once when I had the flu, and one of Helen Keller (I think I was healthy for that one).

I remember reading another of my grandmother's old books, given to me around 1965. It was an 1865 edition of The Cricket's Friends by Cousin Virginia. As I recall, the Cricket's close friends included a saucepan and a teakettle. Go figure. I think it was a little water-damaged (probably by me), but basically still in nice shape. There was even a tipped-in sheet of tissue paper protecting the frontispiece. In the early 1970s, my mom encouraged me to donate the book to the Arents rare book collection at Syracuse University's Bird Library. I got a nice letter back from the collection's curator, thanking me and identifying the mysterious Cousin Virginia by full name. I'm sorry to say that I almost regret the donation, though. I'd like to reread the book! Maybe someday I'll buy a copy online. I know it turns up for sale, in several printings from the 1860s.

I remember reading A Wrinkle in Time when I was in fifth grade. It's fair to say that it's had a lasting impact on my life.

I remember loving The Little Prince, and also The Little Lame Prince (no relation), The Little Lost Angel and The Five Little Kittens. Well, maybe not so much the kittens.

I remember a book called Surprise in a Tree (apparently by Lillian Moore), and one about baby black bears who get into some paint and end up in the polar bear exhibit, and another one about a boy named Billy. In the latter Easy Reader Book, Billy makes his mom a a birthday cake. Quoting from memory here:

Hmm. This cake looks kind of bumpy.
Maybe Ma won't see it's lumpy.
I know it will be good to eat.

In the second half of the book he makes his mom a hat out of all sorts of things, including a bird cage:

"No, Ma, please, Ma, no, Ma, no."
She said, "Billy, you are silly.
Why do you say 'No, Ma, no?'
This is junk. Out it will go."


(Great, now that's gonna be stuck in my head all night. But I'd rather have that than I've Been Working on the Railroad, which chugged around in my tired brain for an hour this morning.)

I remember the books I bought for myself: Skip (about a blind dog) and Follow My Leader (about a blind boy and his dog) from the Arrow Book Club, and Peanuts books from Economy Books at Shoppingtown, back before it was a mall. I think the Peanuts books were 50 cents at the time. My allowance was a quarter. That meant I could buy one every two weeks, if managed to scrounge the tax from Mom.

And I remember fairy tales, especially a very small book of The Bremen Town Musicians, and other one of The Princess and the Pea. The first one I loved because it was about animals. I'm not sure how I feel about the second one now. Like Snow White and Cinderella, the protagonist is virtuous and downtrodden, which certainly has its appeal. But are we supposed to applaud her for being oversensitive, supposedly a sure sign of royal blood? If that were true, I'd be a queen!

Did I have a favorite story? Sure. I had lots of them, at different times. Little Dog Tim was a big hit with me for a while, probably because it was illustrated with photos instead of drawings. I remember Ten Apples Up on Top being my favorite at one point. I remember reading and re-reading the Snoopy books, probably every day for a while. At one time or another, probably nearly every book I've mentioned above was my "favorite."

And I still love them. That's why I've bought back as many of these books as possible, in the same editions I had as a kid. Too bad I can't Google up the story of Billy and his mom. I don't know the title, and the most memorable lines brought up nothing but a message board in which guys were saying terrible things to each other for fun. [Edit, 9/15/2013: It's Billy Brown Makes Something Grand by Tamara Kitt.]

Extra Credit: I don't have kids, and never had a younger sibling, and my godson lives hundreds of miles away. I did tell most of the plot of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to some kids I babysat once. Years later, when I was in college, I told the same story around a back yard campfire to the kids next door. Oh, and the last time my godson was in town, I read a few selections from Heirs of Mâvarin to Jacob and his parents.

Karen

Written by mavarin.
This entry has 9 comments:

The Little Prince - I even have this one in french - I adore that story! http://journals.aol.com/pixiedustnme/Inmyopinion/entries/1303
Comment from pixiedustnme - 10/21/05 6:16 PM
Woops--typed the link wrong. Here goes again: http://journals.aol.com/debbted/SassysSecondWord
Comment from debbted - 10/21/05 10:23 AM

Omg Karen~You still get my "most thorough" award! ;-) Thanks for reminding me of so many other favorites. How could I forget Lassie or Black Beauty?! For extra extra credit I have even shared the Lassie movie with my Collie ;-) (true) Love the photos of your books as well. Dang, I am now grieving for all the books I didn't lug with me on this last move. They are like old lost friends; I know you will understand this! ;-) Wonderful entry!!! Blessings, Sassy ;-)

http://journals.aol.com/debbted/SassySecondWord
Comment from debbted - 10/21/05 10:22 AM

Karen,
I loved this entry!
You brought back memories of so many favorite books that I have loved!
I still read The Little Prince every now and then, and I even have a copy of it written in French, which I studied in high school.
I adore The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, but didn't ever read it until adulthood after I got hooked on C.S.Lewis.
You'll probably wonder about my mothering skills when I 'fess up and tell you that I read "A Wrinkle in Time" for the sole purpose of helping my son write his book report. Okay, truth be known, I wrote the whole darned thing 'cause he was too lazy to read the book himself! But I did enjoy that book very much, too, though I would need to go back and refresh my memory as to why I enjoyed it so much. What was that word I learned from that book? Hmmm, something that started with a T. Tessernaut? Tesserism? Darn, this is going to drive me nuts all day, and I don't think I still have that book around anymore since we moved!
Some of your favorites indicate that you are much younger than I, but I certainly loved the same classics as you.
By the way, as a child I was never read to at bedtime either, but I adored books.
Thanks for this lovely entry. Maybe I should do the weekend assignment , too , now that you've made the wheels begin to turn!
Comment from globetrotter2u - 10/21/05 9:17 AM

Y'know, I don't recall being read to as a child, tho I'm sure I was, since that's probably where I got my love for reading as both my parents are/were readers. Given that it was 50 years or so ago, I don't really expect to remember. :) I do remember books I read as a child, mainly Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (I even had a model of the Cat that I made) and a whole lot of Little Golden Books. I just can't remember back to before I could read.
Comment from shellys555 - 10/21/05 6:48 AM

Wow, that brings back some memories. I had a number of those books as well. And like you, my memories of someone reading to me are mostly from the daytime. My mother used to read to me before my nap. My earliest memories of bedtime stories are of my grandma telling me werewolf tales! Now you have an idea of why I'm so warped. ;-)
Comment from jabarett - 10/21/05 6:10 AM

HA! I used to have those Snoopy books. I just looked, and they are no longer around, but I still have The Beagle Has Landed.
-Paul
Comment from plittle - 10/21/05 6:04 AM

Great choices! Honestly...I don't remember being read to either!! My mother insists that she did and The Velveteen Rabbit was my favorite (I asked her about this a year or so ago when I was buying books for Tyler's growing library.) I think I remember my grandmother reading to us a time or two. And I remember reading to my brother, for sure. I have vivid memories of all HIS books. LOL
Comment from ryanagi - 10/21/05 5:38 AM

Hey Karen :)

Oh my, I loved the "Little Prince" when I was a kid. My 6th grade teacher read it to us during our art hour. Ph how fun. I haven't thought of that book in a long time. :) Of course "Winnie The Pooh" was fun too. I loved Tigger. :)

Always, Carly
Comment from ondinemonet - 10/20/05 10:48 PM

Essentially Irreplaceable

Thursday, September 22, 2005
10:12:00 PM MST
Essentially Irreplaceable

Weekend Assignment #78: You are preparing to evacuate your house due to an upcoming threat. You have already packed up all your essential items, people and pets. You have room for three non-essential items. What are they?

Remember, you already have your essentials: food, medicines, water, clothes, and all the people (including the furry ones) who live with you. "Non-essentials" are things you don't need but would like to have, and can include momentos, books, jewelry, objects of sentimental value, and so on and so forth.

Extra Credit: Have you ever been evacuated?

This question is similar to "What would you take to a desert island?" and "The house is on fire. What do you grab?" I've thought of both questions repeatedly over the years. Tonight, as I consider Scalzi's version of the problem, currently a real concern for people in Texas and Louisiana, I find my answers have changed somewhat. Nowadays, the key for me is not, "How much do you love it?" but "How replaceable is it?"



1. My laptop. Yes, I know, Scalzi said it first, but as he admitted, it barely counts as a nonessential. Most of my digital photos are on here, plus my novels, serials, poetry, old homework, certain blog entries, and master files for all the web pages I maintain. There's more than enough music on there to fill an iPod, and a handful of digital videos I shot, and lots of old notes and correspondence and saved email. It would be a wrench to lose my old papers - early handwritten and typed pages about Mâvarin, childhood drawings, and stories I never finished - but losing them would not be a disaster. Losing the laptop, with no backup anywhere, would be absolutely crushing.


2. A Box of Books. Scalzi fudged by counting a whole box as one thing, and so will I. It's really the only way to go. John and I have thousands of books, but the very rarest, most valuable ones would probably just about fit in one box. They include the following:

Six L'Engle books: Ilsa, two particular copies of A Wrinkle in Time, two hardback copies of The Arm of the Starfish, and a hardback first edition of A Ring of Endless Light. Ilsa is the rarest L'Engle novel, having been out of print since the late 1940s. (It's a deeply unsatisfying book, and L'Engle herself doesn't like it much. Hence, no republication.) One of the Starfish copies is a first edition from 1965, and the other is autographed. I don't remember getting that autograph, or buying an autographed copy, but there it is. It's definitely her handwriting. I do remember when she autographed A Ring of Endless Light for me, the only time I ever met her. My Wrinkle with the classic blue cover is an 11th printing from 1965, and the signed, boxed edition was limited to 500 copies when it came out in 1987. Mine is #169.

Three volumes of what became The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. Back in high school, I read a book by Lin Carter called Imaginary Worlds. It was a survey of the fantasy genre, with sections about Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and so on. Carter even wrote about The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs, a great book that was out of print at the time, but which I'd checked out of the school library several times by then.



In the section about The Once and Future King, a book that spawned both the musical Camelot and Disney's animated feature The Sword in the Stone, Carter quoted a number of great scenes, most memorably a hilarious attempt by King Pellinore to write a love poem to a woman called Piggy. I loved it so much that I bought a paperback copy of White's magnum opus to take on vacation with me that summer. Funny thing: that scene wasn't there! Carter had quoted from scenes that White had deleted from the three original, stand-alone books - The Sword in the Stone, The Witch in the Wood and The Ill-Made Knight - when he crammed them together with a short fourth volume to become The Once and Future King. I think it took me about eight years, and John's help, to track down copies of the second and third books in the series. They've been out of print for 60 years now. In particular, The Witch in the Wood is very different from the second part of the combined novel, retitiled The Queen of Air and Darkness.

I always wanted to put together The Annotated Once and Future King, but it seemed like too much work!

A smattering of Thurber. A few of my James Thurber hardcovers are first editions, and others are wartime editions. One of the books, unfortunately water damaged, was autographed by William Windom some years ago.

A handful of Harlan. Harlan Ellison's rarest books are paperbacks from the 1950s. I should be able to fit all of those in the box, and still have room to pick out another L'Engle or two, and a few autographed Quantum Leap scripts.

3. A box of photos. Since starting this blog, I've really come to appreciate my collection of old photos. Some of them are from my childhood and college years, some from early days of our marriage, and a lot are of Tucson, Disneyland and Walt Disney World. A handful belonged to my mom, and in some cases go back sixty years or more. It distresses me to see how many have melted or otherwise become damaged over the years, particularly my Polaroids.

I've scanned a number of photos into the laptop, but a lot of this stuff is irreplaceable. This point was brought home to me last week at the gym, as I walked on the treadmill and watched CNN with the sound off. In the upper left part of the screen, they were showing names, ages and photos of children missing since Katrina. More than a few of them were featured with just a name, a city and a generic silhouette of a boy or a girl. I thought, what parent doesn't have any photos of their kid? Then I realized that the family photos of many of these people were destroyed in the flood.

I actually have more photos than will fit in my not-so-theoretical banker's box. The leftovers, though, are in notebooks on a high shelf. If there's ever a flood on Calle *Mumble* in Tucson, I take my chances on those surviving.

What's not on this list? Replaceable and bulky stuff. Photocopied scripts can be copied again, and can't be carried away easily. Commercial CDs and DVDs can be bought or rented. Most books I care about are still in print in some form. Too bad about the vintage Barbies, but they can also be replaced. I have original artwork of the Eighth Doctor that's irreplaceable, but it's too big to carry easily. I'd probably take a chance on it surviving on the den wall.

Extra Credit: The closest I came to being evacuated was early one weekend morning in March, 1978. I think it was my birthday, and a Sunday. I was living in a rooming house that had literally been condemned in a legal dispute between a judge, my ex-boyfriend, and the new landlord, a bit of a jerk who hadn't actually closed on the property yet.

About 7:30 AM, Jenny and another puppy I had temporarily, Wafer, started barking, which woke me up. When I tried to get them to stop, my neighbor across the hall heard me, and shouted, "Karen, get out! There's a fire!" This was well before the invention of the laptop, and I didn't grab any books or photos, either. I grabbed just enough clothing to manage in public, and not freeze in March weather - much. The ensemble consisted of a jacket over a nightgown. I think I had on flip-flops, and had just cut my foot on broken glass. I didn't even manage to find my glasses! I just got the puppies and got out! A fireman later retrieved my glasses for me.

Fortunately, the fire was in a second floor apartment. Aside from a smokey smell, it never reached my little studio apartment at all.

Karen


Written by mavarin .
This entry has 5 comments:

Hi Karen :)

Yes...save the Thurbers! Oh my a first edition Thurber. I used to have some first editions, not of Thurber, but some other authors and I lost them a few years ago. I was so sad to not be able to just pick them up and get lost in those magical pages, hand signed by the authors who wrote them. There is something really special in that. Sigh. Yes! Save the Thurbers!

Love, Carly :)
Comment from ondinemonet - 9/24/05 12:01 AM

I am in awe of your books. It looks like some of them may be first editions-- no wonder you want to save them. I also find how so many of us that are writers posted the same list.

Jess
Comment from aurielalata - 9/23/05 1:21 PM

I was just wondering, how many pictures do you have in that box. It looks like a lot.
Comment from cinisoul - 9/23/05 8:31 AM

VERY interesting about T.H. White's books! I never knew that! Now I want to read the originals too. LOL
Comment from ryanagi - 9/23/05 7:20 AM

The possibility of having to flee a night fire (and 20 extra pounds since high school) is why I never sleep nude.
Comment from monponsett - 9/23/05 4:40 AM

Yo Ho!

Monday, September 19, 2005
2:44:00 AM MST


Yo Ho!

Arr! I be given to understand that Monday be Talk Like a Pirate Day! Time to pay tribute to the scurvy bilge rats who've been ravaging the same town for nearly 40 years! Aye, I be jabberin' again about

Pirates of the Caribbean!

I'll not talk yer ear off tonight, matey. 'Tis past 2 AM already. So it's a few words per picture afore I be settin' sail fer Slumberland!

Left: Avast! 'Tis the place, me lads, here in New Orleans Square!

Below: I mustn't let this swab near Barbie! He be too much fer landlubber Ken to handle!

Top: Captain Hook's Chicken of the Sea pirate ship, 1950s Disneyland.
The rest: Marc Davis concept drawings in postcard form, captioned with real pirate doggerel. Arr!

Above: this Marc Davis historical portrait graces a wall, and keeps an eye on unsuspecting tourists.

Below: this dead pirate tells no tales as he guards the cursed treasure!





Original art for a custom watch, Main Street USA, 2003.

Yo Ho! Hoist yer colors for the gallants who introduced this scurvy lot to the world:

Artist / Imagineer Marc Davis
Artist / Designer / Imagineer Claude Coates
Artist / Sculpter / Imagineer Blaine Gibson
Lyricist / Voice Artist X. Atencio
Composer George Bruns
Voice Artist and Lead Pirate Paul Frees
Vocalist / Voice Artist Thurl Ravenscroft and his crew of Mellomen

and Captain of the lot, who died just before the pirates set sail:
Walt Disney

All art copyright Disney.

Just Disney.com: Pirates of the Caribbean

Karen

P.S. And I've not forgotten Jack Sparrow, who came along much later:



Written by mavarin.
This entry has 5 comments:

Hey :)

I was hoping today when I found out what the assignment was that you would do something with the Pirates of the Caribbean! Ahh so very cool, you got to go and see the Pirates at Disneyland not all that long ago. Very cool as usual!

Always, Carly :)
Comment from ondinemonet - 9/20/05 12:21 AM

Shiver me timbers!
Comment from ryanagi - 9/19/05 10:25 AM


Arrrrrrrr....great entry! Love the Depp man.
Comment from alphawoman1 - 9/19/05 5:34 AM

What a great entry.
Betty
Comment from rap4143 - 9/19/05 3:47 AM<>

Update from the Museum of the Weird

Saturday, August 13, 2005
3:03:00 AM MST
Update from the Museum of the Weird

Just a short update tonight - that's the plan, anyway, but you know how loquacious I get, even late at night when I'm terribly tired. We'll just have to see, won't we?

I managed 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night, which is better than four hours but not exactly healthy. But it was worth it. The house is the cleanest it's been in years. I don't know whether you can tell that from these pictures, but in person the change is dramatic. John and I are both pleased and relieved.

The appraiser was pleasant, and didn't diss the house at all. Apparently a working furnace counts more in the valuation than non-working central air conditioning, for all that the former is barely needed in Arizona and the latter is almost essential. The appraiser said that such standards were set by people "who have probably never been south of Duluth." He was satisfied with the full swimming pool, even though it was dirty, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that both John's office and mine count as bedrooms, and that my office counts toward square footage despite not being on the duct work.

I was sleepy, but I got through the day at work and was moderately productive. Tonight I've been mostly rereading Dragonsinger, and worrying a little at how heavily that book influenced bits of the Mâvarin books. We ate dinner I-forget-where in celebration of the end of the appraisal stress and the cleaning. I mean it. I honestly can't remember where we had dinner tonight. After dinner we used up a bit of our lavish and newly-acquired trade credit at Bookman's, where I spent a good part of last Saturday unloading excess books and video.

Tomorrow we head for Phoenix and IKEA.

A few updates regarding this week's other entries:

* Note to Sarah and other Beatle fans: I will be updating the pie entry when I'm done with this one. I can say no more.

* Ever since receiving several fun comments to the Monday Photo Shoot entry, I've been thinking of this house as a "Museum of the Weird," which was an early name and concept for what became the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

As such, I have a modest exhibit for you tonight. See the two middle cushions on the bright orange couch? My stepmother Ruth made them from some of my Dad's vintage ties. We think they're wonderful!

In the other picture, the doll is missing a foot, but not a shoe, the framed photo is a Quantum Leap prop, and the bookcase contains games from two less-than-wonderful old tv shows: Space: 1999 and The Six Million Dollar Man. If none of that is weird enough for you, let me make amends by explaining that the earthquake in a can is supposed to rock and shake if you spin it and then set it down. Being over 20 years old, though, it no longer does this, as we discovered when John tried to demonstrate this function for me. I'm sure I can come up with weirder stuff later for you.

Yawn. That's enough for now. I'll talk to you again on Sunday.

Karen

Written by mavarin . Link to this entry | Blog about this entry | Notify AOL
This entry has 3 comments: (Add your own)

Hi, there! Who is the author of Dragonsinger? Is it Anne McCaffrey? I love all her Dragon books...but my favorite is a nondragon book called Crystal Singer...I must have read that book six times. You always have interesting things to say. Enjoyed your entry today!

http://journals.aol.com/gotomaria/TheLittleThings/
Comment from gotomaria - 8/17/05 6:50 AM

Congrats on getting through the appraisal!

Comment from jabarett - 8/14/05 9:17 AM

I love the necktie pillows!! What a cool idea!
Comment from ryanagi - 8/13/05 1:54 PM