You’d think the could walk in a straight line, right? Pompanette is in the rear, trying to organize everything as usual. Well, the donks and the mule, Pompanette, are back but heaven knows I’m not going up there to their pasture to see those creatures who only have to LOOK at mama and she melts and hands them apples and carrots and takes them...
Read MoreLet’s Get Cookin’
Hey, I’m the taster, okay, but mama forgot to put in the kibble! With apologies to mama’s friend, Phyllis Vaccarelli, who has a cooking school in Los Angeles (where mama taught) called Let’s Get Cookin’, but it seems it has segued into Westlake Culinary Institute. Mama wanted me to tell you about another friend of hers who is, with...
Read MoreRhyme Without Reason
Daydreaming…a form of poetry. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. Dylan Thomas Mama loves poetry. I think I mentioned that even in our local magazine created by the homeless, there are often several very moving and lovely poems that bring a bright spot to one’s day. Well, mama likes to take a book of poetry out of...
Read MoreHome, Not So Sweet Home
Well, with all the press on Jerry Brown’s pay equalization, there seems to have slipped through the cracks this one very important piece of info, which mama’s niece in San Francisco sent to mama about the need for affordable housing and Governor Brown’s mishandling of a perfect solution. Mama’s nephew worked for years with...
Read MoreShadow Dancing II
That’s mama and papa dancing on the hedge of autumn ivy. Well, mama has this thing about taking shadow pics of herself and things but I move around too much to get very many of me so she is putting hers in while mine are still to be had, haha. Here’s mama walking up our stepping stones. That bump at the top on the right of the body is not what...
Read MoreHuman Rites
This morning mama received an email from the ACLU, asking for a signature to bring suit against two psychologists (!) who instigated the program of torture for the CIA. Torture has become a rite in the CIA. As in ritual. As in an accepted form of behaviour, repeated again and again. It is unthinkable to us, mama, papa, me, that human beings can even...
Read MoreTHANKS TO ALL NEW READERS!
Well, mama says it’s time again to say thank you to registering readers and let them know that she looks at every one and sees the name and is fascinated that you all come from all over the place and it’s nice to know that my little pea brain thoughts get to you and maybe, just maybe, make your day a little brighter. Except for sometimes when...
Read MoreBest Shots
Drink LOTS of water No, no these aren’t photos today. I’m talking about that lady who showed up here this morning and stuck mama and papa with a long pointy thing that my vet uses sometimes when she gives me my vaccine each year. Now there are many people who believe that vaccines GIVE you the disease, but that is simply not true. There are...
Read MoreCalifornia, Here it Goes
Well, mama is really pleased at the pay equity law passed by Jerry Brown in California. Although California already has equal pay laws for men and women, the law pushes the decision a bit further to require equal pay for “similar work” done by women. Bosses cannot require their workers to refrain from comparing salaries, and of course it will...
Read MoreWord Play
All talked out… So, maybe you don’t know this, but I listen to conversations between mama and papa all day long, which is to say that they really like to yak (cheep) a lot to each other, especially around four when they have a little espresso to liven up the day, and it was so funny today when they went in the kitchen to warm up the machine,...
Read MoreGoodbyes
Some of mama’s brother’s handiwork–toy lead soldiers in tableaux, hand made, hand painted, unlike any others. Mama says that even if you say goodbye to someone who dies, in any language—au revoir, ciao, arrivederci, adios, adieu, adeus, auf Wiedersehen, bon voyage, sayonara, aloha, totsiens, shalom, zàijiàn, vale—that that person is still...
Read MoreFeral and Fantastic
Cassidy-learning to use his miraculous wheelchair Well, I just couldn’t pass this up. I don’t ordinarily read many of these items because there are just too many in a day, but this story about Cassidy is just too heart-rending to pass up, plus this week, feral cats are in the news and this is a perfect story about how feral kittens can survive...
Read MoreScallop Surprise
In the beginning, there was the olive oil. And the onion and the rice and the… Well, mama was thinking of having this lunch party and unfroze some little bay scallops for seven people and then a large number of the seven got colds and sore throats (I hope they are better now!) and so mama started a risotto that night into which she put everything...
Read MoreStrawberries on a Tree?
Above you will see fruit forming on our strawberry tree (arbousier). They grow in the wild here but our neighbour planted this one years ago on his brother’s property, which we bought decades later, and it’s a great tree for shade and also attracts bees. But the white blossoms that drop off every morn drive papa crazy because he has to sweep...
Read MorePen Pals
(And I don’t mean pen as in those places you keep chickens and doggies and such. Have you ever seen a kitty in a pen? NO WAY, Jose.) Well, I just received this amazingly kind and thoughtful email from a doggy in San Francisco named Lola, and I am so tickled about having a new friend that maybe, just maybe (if mama ever gets me even near one of those...
Read MoreA Couple of Bickers
Well, I’ve been thinkin’. Sometimes when we have company, I catch a funny look on mama’s face when no one is looking and I have deduced (whatever that means) that something has just happened that made her wince and then she comes back to normal and keeps it to herself until she’s alone with papa. Mama says it’s no fun to be at...
Read MoreHollow Bone Heaven
No, I did not tear the throat out of a tyrannosaurus… Well, there were some people coming for lunch the other day and I thought I would just whip up a little ossobuco for the crowd and mama said she would help. I know I have mentioned this succulent veal dish before in other blogs, but I think it’s time for the recipe, which, by the way, will...
Read MorePraise for the Milanesi
It’s just too schizophrenic around here in the morning. Yesterday I read that the mayor of Milan was giving shelter, clothes and food to immigrants and allowed them to continue camping out in Milan’s railway station used during Mussolini’s reign to ship human cargo to Hitler’s camps. An uplifting turnaround for that station from...
Read MoreA Leg Up
I don’t think Jimmy Choo’s will fit over this (whatever they are). Oh, mama is so, so sorry for her ex-sister-in-law who fell a couple of weeks ago and fractured her ankle and is now in bed with her second cast, which is better than the first one because it can get wet and she was taking showers under the hose in the back yard because it was...
Read MoreGuns Kill. Period.
School supplies. Are we out of our minds? So papa was thinking this morning after, having mama read out loud the very perceptive blog from www.it’snoodle!com, that no one in his right mind would even think of giving a car to a child, much less to a person without a license who is required by LAW to learn the rules of the road, the rules of the...
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