Borrow a Landmark.
I prefer even numbers. It’s probably an OCD tendency of mine but I find myself feeling a little relieved when the calendar cooperates with me. Today, 8/8/26, happens to be an even day in an even month of an even year. Beautiful. Some of us also tend to like round numbers: 5, 10, 20, 50, […]
Rich, Fizzy, and Chocolatey.
One of the most iconic beverages in New York City is called an Egg Cream. Yes, you heard that right. It’s made of raw eggs and cream mixed together. Just Kidding. But I did tell Darren that before he tried one on our last trip. An Egg Cream, which contains neither eggs, nor cream is […]
Loss Leaders – and the first thing in the cart.
My friend Wikipedia recently explained to me that a “loss leader” is a pricing strategy where a product is sold at a price below its market cost to draw customers into a store where they are likely to buy other goods. The vendor expects that the typical customer will purchase other items at the same […]
“The horses are fine.”
I have (another) confession: The Fourth of July has never been my favorite holiday because I don’t love fireworks. But there is one thing I genuinely love about this time of year (especially this year!): the Revolutionary War period. I love reading about it, studying it, and watching movies and shows set during that time. […]
The Wrong Place to Start.
I am going to start this post by saying that I genuinely have not been to Target in months. This week I found myself with a little time to kill in a specific part of town, and there happened to be a Target nearby. Before I walked in, I gave myself the usual pep talk […]
Lucky Number Seven.
For thousands of years, people have repeatedly organized important things into groups of seven. Seven days in a week. Seven wonders of the ancient world. Seven seas. Seven colors in a rainbow. Seven notes in a musical scale. Seven deadly sins. The number seven shows up in religion, music, science, mythology, geography, and storytelling. And […]
My Version of Walden Pond.
Henry David Thoreau was about 27 years old when he moved to Walden Pond in 1845. He stayed there a little over two years. I’ve been to that spot in Massachusetts. I’ve stepped into the one room cabin on Walden Pond and have seen the view he saw, the woods he walked in. I think […]
Monarch Science and the Middle Generations.
Several years ago a friend of mine was involved in a volunteer program to help with the migration of Monarch butterflies. She was the first one to tell me that Monarch caterpillars rely solely on leaves from Milkweed plants – 20 or 30 leaves each, to be exact. What I didn’t understand back then is […]
Olivelle – and Mental Taste Testing.
There is a magical store in Bozeman, Montana called Olivelle. Olivelle was started 20 years ago by a mom and daughter who started with a love of high quality olive oil and vinegar and kept expanding from there. They now offer over 150 of their own products and every time I go there, I leave […]
The Cows Really Do Come Home.
Recently, thanks to my sister Coleen, I have completely fallen in love with a children’s book entitled I’ll Love You Till the Cows Come Home and the follow up, I’ll Love You Till the Crocodiles Smile. They are arguably two of the cutest and most clever children’s books I’ve ever read. And yes, I know […]
