{bits & pieces}

The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter! 

(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)

 

 

I made salsa yesterday with the last of my garden produce and some store-bought tomatillos. Even though I’m no salsa expert, I will post my recipe here sometime next week, because I want to remember it when I plant tomatillos next year. It’s crazy to be buying salsa! I could be making it!

(I know there are air bubbles in these jars — I’m not canning them, because this is all I got. Must. Plant. Tomatillos.)

On to our links!

Yesterday was the birthday of two men — Russell Kirk, who would have been 100, and my husband, who is a bit younger than that. One evening long ago, as we were enjoying dinner together, it emerged that Russell’s wife, Annette, and I also share a birthday, May 17th. If you know anything about Russell Kirk, you know that besides being a learned observer and mover of culture and politics, he delighted in and spun many a ghost story, reveling in those strange realities we don’t see. It’s amusing to me to think that Russell was more than 20 years older than Annette and Phil is ten years older than I — the October/May relationship is well represented between us. This birthday coincidence with its metaphorical aptness seems very Kirkian to me! Read appreciations of Russell Kirk here and here.

 

Remember in The Hobbit when Thorin tells Bilbo to “hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a screech owl”?

“You must go on and find out all about that light, and what it is for, and if all is perfectly safe and canny,” said Thorin to the hobbit. “Now scuttle off, and come back quick, if all is well. If not, come back if you can! It you can’t, hoot twice like a barn-owl and once like a screech-owl, and we will do what we can.”

Off Bilbo had to go, before he could explain that he could not hoot even once like any kind of owl any more than fly like a bat.

Somehow this passage has always felt familiar to me, as if Tolkien were simply retailing a common thing one says, although I couldn’t possibly say where else I had read it. Is it a thing? Or did he really make it up? I don’t know. But do you know how to do it? Here are the calls of five common owls; here is a fun blog post about whether Thorin was pulling Bilbo’s leg.

A look into what the implications are of changing birth certificates to reflect a person’s “transgender” status. I would simply add that if the government has the power to do any such fundamental changing of a vital record of identity, it has the power to do many other things we haven’t quite thought through.

 

If you are a resident of Massachusetts, please please educated yourself about the upcoming referendum on the Bathroom Bill, which seeks to keep the 2016 law allowing any man identifying as a woman to have access to women’s facilities. Everyone is for it until they are informed that it is a law now on the books that allows any man, including any sex offender, to enter any women’s facility for any reason, as long as he identifies as a woman, even if he doesn’t always do so. If you, a woman or man who felt unsafe (say you are a dad whose young daughter needs to use the restroom at a restaurant), called the police, YOU would be liable to up to $50,000 in fines or jail time. Vote NO on 3.

 

Modelling manhood.

 

I love reading about P. G. Wodehouse’s writing: God & Bertie Wooster.

 

If you follow us on Facebook, you will have seen that I posted about the update I had to make to a post here, warning parents about the unacceptable themes in the new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book. A ridiculous pile-up ensued, with a trolling mob coming after me to demand that I recant of this sin against PC. Yes, it looked like Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was going to be the hill I was going to die on, because of course I am not about to submit to bullying. I did have to take one post down just so that unsuspecting commenters didn’t get pursued; the second one took me two days to defend from being overrun by angry, rude, and even pornographic spamming. What is this phenomenon? It doesn’t really have a word… it’s… a Thing. Until we can name it, we can’t defend ourselves from it.

 

If your children go to public school, they will definitely be subjected to celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Harvey Milk, gay activist. It will certainly be all over the media. Might as well find out what the true story is.

 

From the archives:

Martinmas is coming…

 

As is the colder weather. Too long, didn’t read: This is not so much about sweaters as about other layers to prevent chills going up their little torsos: get them undershirts and tuck them in (you can usually find undershirts at Target; Amazon carries them too). Mitts and hats. Leggings alone don’t cut it. Don’t miss the follow-up post.

 

Today is the memorial of St. John of the Cross. Enjoy!

 

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