Sheep and Wool Festival

Next weekend is the annual sheep and wool festival at the Howard County Fairgrounds. Admission is free. But, that's because you'll spend your week's income on yarn there. If you're into knitting, or think you could be, this is where you'll want to be next weekend.

As for me, I'll just be purchasing one skein of this uber luxurious stuff I've been thinking about since last year. And this wonderful yarn spun in Norisville, MD. And hopefully, that will be all.

Llamas will be present!

See you there.

New Music for Your Listening Pleasure

The new Morrissey album, Ringleader of the Tormentors, is really great. I've heard most of the songs on the album. And, as soon as my husband stops listening to it incessantly in his car and lets me borrow it, I'll comment on the album as a whole. The production is great, and how can you resist Morrissey? (even though you pretend you don't like him, you know you do.)


The Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics. Not as good as The Soft Bulletin, but it's difficult to improve on perfection. Some people find the "Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" annoying, but that's exactly why it just won't leave my head.








I just saw Martha Wainwright and Neko Case live at the 930 club last weekend. While I don't have either of these albums yet, the live music from them last weekend was fantastic. Some of the best female vocalists I've heard perform in years. You can also listen to the show from the 930 club on NPR's all songs considered at www.npr.org

Spring

The transition seasons, fall and spring, are my favorite. In high school, I read this poem by ee cummings. It has always summed up how I feel about spring. I was thinking about this poem this morning on my drive into work. Each day, I'm noticing more blossoms on the trees, more leaves beginning to peek out from the branches. I've agreed with the poet since reading this, that Spring is like the people who change the mannequins in the shop windows. So, happy Spring everyone.

III

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

An Open Letter to the Advertisers of Axe Body Spray

Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. Maker of the Advertisements of Axe Body Spray:

I am writing on behalf of the public to please stop airing your ads for Axe body spray on television. I believe they encourage an unnecessarily excessive use of your product, thus offending olfactories everywhere.

I understand that people wear your product to smell more appealing to the human race. But, do you have to make ads where people are applying it in such a liberal manner? Isn't one quick spritz enough? Do you really think that people will pour it all over themselves?

Yes, you do think that. And yes, people do it. I just wish they wouldn't do it so often in public. I smell it everywhere. Eight feet ahead of me in line at the grocery store, twelve feet ahead of me while walking through a shopping mall, and sometimes I smell it when there's no one around at all.

I know you have to make a profit. It's fine if people want to wear Axe body spray. But, please, on behalf of the sense of smell of all Americans, encourage responsible usage of your product. That's all I'm asking.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Concerned American