I love Stockholm

Back from the homeland

I just came back from Stockholm. 

If you go there, don't miss out on the window displays of Ulla Hannertz' store VIC on Skomakargatan 5 in Gamla Stan.

What, you've never seen a fish hooked up to an IV before?

Just one more link: Bored and Brilliant

I find this very interesting.

The peripatetics had it down.

https://www.kth.se/en/aktuellt/nyheter/promenadseger-for-ga-seminarier-1.535100

So impressed

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/22/378904803/x-rays-open-secrets-of-ancient-scrolls

Perhaps one day, I'll go to Mongolia too

Such beautiful pics here.

Resolutions, revisited

Back in january of 2014, I made a few resolutions. 

So how did I do ?

In 2014 I resolved to:

Get my first book published. YES! THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED!

Sort out my taxes. Kinda.
Learn how to salsa. Lo siento, didn't happen.

Visit a medieval castle I've been needing to visit for years. Not really. Though did go to medieval festival and saw my 7-year old beat a knight in a sword fight. Also went to Medieval Times.
Master my new camera. MASTER IT. Get down with f-stops and apertures and bracketing and everything else. No. But love the camera. 
Salsa with the camera in a medieval castle then write a book about it. The taxes will just have to sort themselves out meanwhile. This dream still has to be realized. 

Fashion

Just browsed a little H&M online. This look intrigues me. 

If it looks like this on a model, how will it look on a regular person?

It's avantgarde in its own affordable way.

Oversharing

Yesterday in Central Park, I saw a very large bird hunched over his/her prey: a squirrel.
It seemed fascinating to me, to see such a big bird up close.
I stopped a few Italian tourists to share this unusual sight.

Disgusted and shocked at my suggestion that anyone would find such a scene interesting, they took off from me in a hurry.

So much for sharing.

Bear feed

I screengrabbed this image from the livestream from a bear mother's den:



Most of the time you just see the mama bear relaxing. But every now and then you can see her tiny little baby cubs too, as in this pic.

Ps. Tack Cilla!!

ps 2. Whole livestream link if you find blue text confusing (hi mom).

http://www.helahalsingland.se/allmant/halsingland/live-fran-bjornidet

New blog tip for the middle aged

http://laphamsquarterly.org/communication/charts-graphs/marginalized

Ps. Thanks Emily!

Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume

I LOVE Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume. Can't get enough of them.

I never read their books as a child, they weren't big in Swedenland.

So I've discovered them now, at this ripe age.

It's never too late!

Overheard in Central Park

It's freezing out in NYC today. But bright, crisp, beautiful too. I needed to take a long walk so took two laps around the Jackie O reservoir where I overheard two gentlemen exchange the following:

Old man 1: Man, I love days like today here!

Old man 2: Me too.

Old man 1: When it's this empty, so few people. Then it's so vast.

Old man 2: I know.

Old man 1: So vast! So vast! It's like Yukon.

YES!

A new podcast for you and me.

Launching in January 2015, Invisibilia (Latin for "all the invisible things") explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior – things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions.



Click here for link----->>>> Invisibilia

Update: Time capsule contents even more boring than anyone could imagine

http://www.livescience.com/49412-1795-time-capsule-opened.html

so disappointed.

Would even have been even happier if it was all a pr-hoax for Sons of Liberty than this yawn-inducing find.

not telling you what I'm putting into my personal time capsule though.

ps. won't be newspapers and coins though.

Planning a new book

My synopsis for next book is almost identical to this. 

Just exchange all "men" with "women" and ladies with lads.

Dear Fresh

I'm picky with skin care and not easily impressed. But have now tried this for about a week and it seems to work better than many other night creams. At least for me. Thank you.

Ps. Have in no way been endorsed (I wish!) to say this.

This exists

You know it was just a matter of time. 

Saw this chocolate bar in the candy section at JFK 

like it was no different from other kinds of chocolate. 

Upp next: sausages in caramel. 

that's a lot of water

we should start talking about tp too! 

Crumb calling himself a cowardly cartoonist

Robert Crumb - always interesting.
http://observer.com/2015/01/legendary-cartoonist-robert-crumb-on-the-massacre-in-paris/

Ps. Thanks Rebecca.

Things that would never ever happen in the US

On the house: educational animation on privates produced by Sweden's national tv. As a parent, am not offended but then again, I'm Swedish.

Thoughts?

Cookbooks

Give me the names of your favorites! And have any of you read this?

My kind of amendment

The best way to honor the right to bear arms. Also love how this man seems to wear a shirt with nipple.

On ageing

Ageing is partly the process of learning to live without doubletakes.

or perhaps this is the time to get going on skin care, makeup, the works.

I read this yesterday and thought - that's me, everyday, all the time. Am not even on trial? Or are we all on some kind of looks trial past the age of, say, 10? Deep thoughts my friends, deep thoughts.

(clip from brief NYP post on Bess Myerson)

Unexpected help from Anne Hathaway

clipped from people.com

Anne Hathaway isn't proud of her 2011 Oscars hosting gig, but she has faith that Neil Patrick Harris will do a wonderful job this year. "He'll be great. He's a natural host," Hathaway told The New York Times. Her advice to the actor? "Do the opposite of what I did, and you'll be fine." 

Hathaway and co-host James Franco received criticism for their performance at the 83rd annual Academy Awards, especially their opening, when they spoofed the year's top movies. When asked what she thinks she did wrong, she replied, "I think it's so obvious that it doesn't even need to be identified." 

The actress, 32, said the additional criticism she received over her Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2013 for Les Misérables taught her "self acceptance. If you're not someone who has a natural and effortless love for yourself, it's hard to let go of your desire to please other people, and that's really not an ingredient for a happy life," she said.

intrigued by strangers

Best eavesdropping snippet I've heard in a while was a woman in Santa Monica weezing into her cell phone: "Because you're going to federal prison, you fucking idiot"


so curious about the who, where, why, when and what.

Lending your favorite books out to friends

Do you ask for them back? Or just buy a new one?

Sam Adams and Paul Revere's time capsule to be opened

Now am trying to decide what I wish it would contain.

Fairly sure it will be some formal, pompous and boring letter to the future.

Hope I'm wrong.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/01/06/1795-time-capsule-buried-by-sam-adams-paul-revere-to-be-opened/

Invalid question

Valid question.

Me: Tomorrow it will snow, Niki.

Niki: Really?

Me: Really!

Niki: Yeah, but will it be the kind that actually stays snow, not just disappears as it hits the ground.