Fewer teens want to drive yet automakers court them. – while this article is focused on the next generation of US automobile buyers, the data points provided are very pertinent to the current debate regarding requiring citizens to show US government-issued photo IDs before voting. The percentage of 19-year-olds without a driver’s license has doubled…
Author: Penelope Gordon
Laundry
Wash Use a liquid, phosphate-free, concentrated detergent. Measure per the instructions. Sort laundry first by weight. For example, jeans, towels, and sweats go in the heavy load; button up shirts, underwear, and dress socks go in the light load. T-shirts, collared, knit shirts, and sports socks can go either way. If you have enough…
Works by Neil Gaiman
Penelope’s Pinterest Board related to Neil Gaiman’s works. 2013 April Poem A Gaiman poem with which to kickoff National Poetry Month. 2012 May Commencement Speech Twenty minute video of Neil Gaiman’s inspiring commencement speech at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts in May 2012. This speech will be published in book form under the title ‘Neil…
Bay Area Restaurants
East Bay Vegan and Carnivores together Oakland vegan restaurants and food trucks map. Alameda 2014/05/03: Tetsu Ramen, 1245 Park St, 11am – 9:30pm. Recently opened. Divided Yelper opinions – in part due to differences over what makes good ramen and in part to folks’ odd ideas about prices and serving sizes of Japanese cuisine (in…
Regency Romance Novels
Reference Technically a Regency romance is set during the British Regency, 1811 to 1820. Helpful order of precedence chart for European honorific titles. Palladian architecture was a mid-17th and early 18th century English interpretation of a 16th century Venetian interpretation of early Greek and Roman architecture. scorzonera, skirret, cardoon, couve tronchuda Games of chance: Vingt-et-un…
Famous Quotes
Books The book Paul Clifford is the source of the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night”. The full first opening line of the book is: It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up…
Message in an vBottle
The following idea was triggered by the article “Return of a castaway” in the 2012 September 17 print edition of the Christian Science Monitor about students at a school in Maine who launch (wine) bottles which enclosed messages into the Gulf of Maine every year. A recent article on a school in Mass. that sends…
Bicycling
Checklist Helmet – Check the expiration date! The foam breaks down over time. Brakes and gears in good working order – A bike that hasn’t been ridden in a while probably needs lubrication inside the rear gear box as well as on the chain. Newer gears ‘bite’ the chain better but also cause the chain…
IT Workforce
Related CV Employees Nutriate blog post Return of on-the-job training (in factories) – article in the 2012 September 17 print edition of the Christian Science Monitor Coursera IT Professions The September 2012 experience of NFL games referred by replacements while the experienced professionals were locked out by the NFL owners (over a contract dispute) is…
Southern Folk Stories
Sister Tricksters: Rollicking Tales of Clever Females retells folk stories of the American South which feature female tricksters. As noted in the insightful introduction, these trickster tales should not be confused with morality tales: the tricksters don’t get their comeuppance for their amoral behavior, and they certainly are not repentant. That’s not to say that…