The Hindu name Pankaj has a wonderful meaning. The word is a compound of paṅka ‘mud‘ and the suffix -ja ‘born from, growing in‘. The associated symbolism is of the lotus that is born in mud and blossoms after arising from mud. from wikipedia What a wonderful notion: growing in the mud. We think of …
I had the greatest map Antarctica hanging in my dining room when I lived in Lincoln Square. I got it at the Rand McNally closing sale on Michigan Avenue for $6. Some of the lines were printed in silver ink. I can’t believe 17 years later I found the same map online for sale! $10 …
I’m going back to my old method of scheduling blog posts. The beginning part of this year, I was doing great! Making about 20-30 blog posts per month. I wasn’t scheduling blog posts. As soon as I wrote the post, I would publish it. Some days I’d make multiple blog posts. I would just post …
I always enjoyed my 24-minute stereo recording of walking through downtown Chicago. But now I really appreciate this recording of how Chicago used to sound before stay-at-home orders. Plus, after two months of not being downtown, I miss these everyday urban sounds. Recorded using a Marantz PMD620, the quality is nice. And did I mention …
Do you miss the sounds of city life? Here’s 24 minutes of Chicago background sounds. Read More »
Check out the visitor we had on our porch windowsill. A baby bird! It was still drizzling outside, and I thought Amazon delivered a package, so I checked the front porch. Lo and behold outside on one of our windowsills was a little baby bird! The momma bird was sitting next to the baby bird, …
Whip cream and Coca-Cola sounds pretty good, right? The quarantine trick is to not use a glass for the Coca-Cola. Just spray the whip cream directly into the can. Fitting the whip cream nozzle into an aluminum can is so quarantine. The act of fitting the whip cream nozzle into an aluminum can is so …
I just put whip cream in my Coca-Cola because quarantine Read More »
The photo printing service Snapfish sent me an email saying that if I don’t order any prints, they will delete my photos. Which is completely fair. They shouldn’t have to host my photos if I’m not ordering any prints. To pull on the emotional strings, they included a photo inside the email. Here’s a screenshot …
For 40 years, my twin brother and I didn’t know if we were fraternal or identical twins. We looked close enough to perhaps be identical. But we had enough differences between us that people could easily tell us apart. Whenever someone found out that either of us was a twin, the first question always asked …
Whenever snow falls in April, it always is a bit of a surprise. We tend to think of April as a spring month. The temperatures start warming up. And then boom. Snow. Snow? Really? When there isn’t a global pandemic keeping everyone at home, I can understand how most people don’t want to see the …
Lately everyone has been sharing creative projects to do at home. Usually they are cute like putting a teddy bear in your front window. But how about a quirky project? Photograph all the doorknobs in your residence. Ever pay attention to your doorknobs? They are so critical and intimate. To open a door, you need …
Stay at home challenge: Photograph all the door knobs in your residence Read More »
People are setting teddy bears in their front window, so people can walk around on a #teddybearhunt making your neighborhood friendlier. Here’s our little purple bear. Put a bear in your window. More teddy bears people have put in their window
