Author: Will Durant, Historian & Philosopher

Remembering American author, William James "Will" Durant on his day of birth ( November 5, 1885,  died November 7, 1981). What a mind! He not only wrote the 11-volume set, The Story of Civilization, etc. but he also said and/or wrote some profound things. Here are a couple:

As to harmonizing the theory of evolution with the Biblical account of creation, I do not believe it can be done, and I do not see why it should be. The story of Genesis is beautiful, and profoundly significant as symbolism: there is no good reason to torture it into conformity with modern theory. (Will Durant, on Religion and Evolution, 1927)

The discoveries here summarized have restored considerable credit to those chapters of Genesis that record the early traditions of the Jews. In its outlines, and barring supernatural incidents, the story of the Jews as unfolded in the Old Testament has stood the test of criticism and Archeology; every year adds corroboration from documents, monuments, or excavations.... We must accept the Biblical account provisionally until it is disproved. (Will Durant, on History and Bible, 1963)

Will Durant

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Doing a Marie Kondo During COVID-19

If there's one thing about Coronavirus Season it's the abundance of time to finally look around our home and throw out, use up, or sell what we've accumulated through the years. Hoorah! It's far from over.  But, what's been done so far has led to neatness, feelings of accomplishment, plus we're a few hundred dollars richer. Thank you, Lord!

I use, and encourage others to use, [Kondo’s] basic premise that you should keep something only if it gives you pleasure - B Hammil (via H O U Z Z )

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2 Key Rules

After nearly a lifetime of practice, the Tokyo-based Kondo has developed what she calls the KonMari Method. Its essence is deceptively simple, but (I speak from experience) its implementation can be quite difficult, mainly because of our reluctance to part with possessions.

There are two key tenets to Kondo’s method: Keep only what inspires joy in your heart and organize by category, not spaces.

Keep what you love.

In terms of “sparking joy,” a phrase Kondo uses often in her book, it can be summed up this way: If you don’t love it, get rid of it. Here’s the hard part: She advises a tough-love approach to parse out whether something makes you happy or if you are just simply hanging on to it.

Sort by type, not room. 

One of the primary things that makes Kondo’s approach different is her technique of purging by category. For example, instead of cleaning and organizing your master bedroom closet, she suggests tackling all of your clothes at once. Her point is that you likely don’t have garments stored in just one spot — for example, there are coats in the closet, T-shirts in a bureau, perhaps even seasonal clothes stashed in the attic. Experience has taught her that if you tidy by areas or rooms, the tidying never ends. Instead, she advocates performing the task by category and in one fell swoop. As she writes on the first page of her book, “Start by discarding. Then organize your space, thoroughly, completely in one go.”

sold!

Read the full Houzz article H E R E

Can Tidying Up Result in Life-Changing Magic?

Tidying-up Can Be Life Changing




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What Determines the Success or Failure of ANY Room

A short post from IG, but sooooooooo good!  I think I knew this fact instinctively as we remodelled our kitchen area. Of course we were within several constraints, including financial $$$$; but we did what we could.

A Pattern Language “When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty.

Therefore: Locate each room so that it has outdoor space outside it on at least two sides, and then place windows in these outdoor walls so that natural light falls into every room from more than one direction.This pattern, perhaps more than any other single pattern, DETERMINES the SUCCESS or FAILURE of a room. The arrangement of daylight in a room, and the presence of windows on two sides, is fundamental. If you build a room with light on one side only, you can be almost certain that you are wasting your money. People will stay out of that room if they can possibly avoid it. Of course, if all the rooms are lit from one side only, people will have to use them. But we can be fairly sure that,they are subtly uncomfortable there, always wishing they weren't there, wanting to leave - just because we are so sure of what people do when they do have the choice.” - - Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander 

pc: highfashionhome

pc: Houzz

pc: architectural digest

There ya have it, folks, the only design secret you need absolutely know and remember. No wonder I was drawn to the above sunny, bright, beautiful rooms as we remodeled. 

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Garlic: List of Uses and Benefits

Uses & Benefits of Garlic:

Ahhh… garlic, that Italian cure-all. You can hardly go wrong any way you try it. 

Here’s one special way I use it:

First, go to the garden (or the grocery store) and bring home a couple bulbs of garlic. A bulb is the golf-ball size pod of the plant, which can be separated into many cloves—shaped like the individual wedges taken from an orange. Break off two or three large cloves, and lay them on your counter. Set some water on the stove to warm, and then spread out a clean washcloth or double-thick paper towel. Smack the garlic cloves with the bottom of a heavy glass to lightly bruise or crush them. Now the papery skin will come off easily. Take the bruised cloves and dice them up, or smash them in a garlic press so that the juice billows out the familiar aroma that makes you hungry for Lasagna.

Lay the 2-3 tablespoons of minced garlic in the center of your washcloth or paper towel, and fold in the edges of the cloth, creating what I call a “poultice” or “plaster.” Place this garlic pad in a bowl or plate and pour warm (not hot) water over it. Let it sit for 5 seconds or so, then drain and squeeze the excess water out with your hands. Apply the warm (not hot!) poultice to the chest, back, and soles of the feet (alternately) for about 60 seconds each for treatment of any virus, cold, flu, infection, etc…

Garlic poultices can also be used for earaches—placing crushed garlic or a garlic poultice against the infected ear. Also, a clove of garlic wedged in the ear like an old fashioned hearing aid works great for earaches (but be careful not to leave too long, or you will burn the skin!)

For flesh wound infections, hold against the wound lightly for about two minutes. Repeat several times a day.

To treat eye infections, hold poultice over the tightly closed eye for about two minutes. Careful! This burns really bad if it gets in the eye.

Warm garlic oil is also healing and comforting in an ear when there is an infection. The oil is made by adding a few drops of olive oil to a tiny bit of fresh crushed garlic, let sit for a few minutes, then strain out all the garlic and discard. The oil that goes in the ear must be free of any visible particles. You will have enough for one application of warm garlic oil for an earache. I always make mine fresh. Do not make it too strong, because it can burn the skin. Experiment on the inside of your arm to see how strong or how long you can leave the garlic on your skin without it burning. It can literally blister your skin (chemical heat.)

A very weak or mild, warm garlic water douche is helpful for female infections. Douche recipe – pour very warm water over crushed garlic in a sieve. Dilute with cold water until tepid. Check by tasting it, so that the garlic flavor is very light.

Warm water poured over crushed garlic in a strainer, with added vinegar and honey will make a “tea” or “gargle water” that will knock out the worst sore throat or mouth infection.

Tips to Live By:

Don’t wait until you are miserable before taking action! As soon as you feel that sore throat coming on, sip some hot garlic water, and you will NEVER get sick. If you are tough, and your love-life is secure, you can just eat a garlic clove raw. Treat your children as soon as they get cranky; don’t wait until they get an infection.

Garlic is very strong. If the patient’s nose starts running with clear mucus like a dripping faucet, then it’s time to ease off on the garlic treatment. It will open every pore and detox you so quickly and thoroughly, you may be miserable if you over-do it. So, be watchful.

Grow your own garlic! Once you learn how to use it, you will quickly become dependent on it. If you have your own little garlic plot in the backyard, you won’t have to make midnight runs to the grocery store when junior gets a cold.

Read the following book. It will give you many more practical tips and home-care knowledge that will keep you from going to the doctor.  The ABC Herbal by Steven H. Horne is written to help moms learn how to treat their children with herbs. It is short, simple and would be a help for all moms.

NOTE: This is how I use garlic, but I am not a licensed medical doctor, and do not intend this as advice on how you should use it. Consult your physician.

by Rebekah Joy Anast

Garlic, the Italian Cure-all

What Garlic Can Do For You

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Dog Story: Yummy in her Tummy

"Honey", our pretty designer Pup, only cost us $25 to purchase, yay! However, she has one glaring defect. In spite of a multitude of toys ...

... she prefers to chew on the following (incomplete list):

footwear

plastic containers

Library Books

 $17 library fee 

 $ 40 fee for this small amount of damage, eek!

furry bffs

still alive! kitty "tolerates" doggy's  affectionate nibbles

Honey also favors the taste of napkins and other paper products.
She loves dragging dirty laundry all over the house. Embarrassing! Feels like walking around with your zipper un-zipped or with ripped-up pants that expose your privates.  

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Political Conservatives Are Less Stingy

Based on the the book by Arthur Brooks called Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism

I have asked hubby to check it out at our local library.  Otherwise, it is available for purchase on AMAZON .


47.06.30.17

You are Not so Smart

...the book

I want it for Christmas!

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BBC's top 100 books --- books read recently

Must add these to my list of books I've read recently.
A couple are not in their top 100 books list:


The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (done 12/23/2010)


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon


Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen


The Things they carried - Tim O-Brien


The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (done 1/18/2011)


My Journey with Farrah - Alana Stewart (done 1/20/2011)


The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (done 1/24/2011)


A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (done 1/30/2011)


Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua (done 2/3/2011)

BBC top 100 books, continued

I want to read most of BBC's TOP 100  books, God willing.
Done with my number 35 on the list (The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins).
Here's my next read  ---

Number 36: Middlemarch by George Eliot

http://www.online-literature.com/george_eliot/middlemarch/

It's got me bogged down, though.  I think it's because both 35 and 36 are from the 19th century.
 So, I'll read this at the same time ---

Number 37: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77203.The_Kite_Runner

BBC's top 100 books

This was a friend's blog from a couple of days ago.  This has resulted in an impromptu reading list for my Nook.  I've made bold those books I remember reading. I did not italicize.  I may have read more, but the total comes to 34.  


    The Woman in White is  my  number 35 (as of today, 12/03/2010) . For a book that is over 150 years old, it's quite rivetting:

Have you read more than six of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here... Bold those books you've read in their entirety and italicize those you have read in part.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien  

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot  (done, 12/15/2010)

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -reading now

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma-Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (done 12/20/2010)

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins  

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyto

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo