From 1916, a book that tells you all about the kind of thrift where you pay less money instead of more, Adventures in Thrift. Yes, the tips are told as the thrifty adventures of Mrs. Larry!

“Mrs. Larry was not her real name. She was Mrs. Lawrence Hall, born Gregory, christened Elizabeth Ellen, but from the day of her marriage she had been nick-named “Mrs. Larry” by all those fortunate enough to count themselves as friends or acquaintances. And she loved the name. She said it made her feel so completely married to Larry.”

As all educated folk know, love is addictive as hell, and simply a trick your body and brain chemistry play on you to get you to spawn. Still, it’s more fun than the alternative.

If you’re of a technical bent, and looking for a place to apply your skills in the community, check out NPower (or, if you’re near the center of the universe, try their Seattle affiliate). They’re dedicated to "Putting technology know-how in the hands of nonprofits." In the Rose City, farther from the sway of the Evil Empire, they have FreeGeek.

From Israel21c:

Jan. 21 – The chief rabbi of the city of Safed, Shlomo Eliyahu, has composed a special prayer for those who have accidentally entered pornographic sites or have had those sites pop up unannounced on their screens. Yediot Aharonot reported that concerned religious surfers contacted Rabbi Eliyahu,telling him that they had accidentally entered pornographic sites while surfing. On hearing this, Eliyahu composed a special prayer for protection from entering pornographic sites by accident: “Please, God, help me to cleanse my computer of all sorts of viruses and evil images that spoil and interfere with my lawful work, and allow me to cleanse myself so that I may be pure of mind and may pray with a perfect heart, and that I may raise a family in true, stable love.” Eliyahu said that the prayer should be said every time one goes onto the Internet.

Me, I’m sticking with AVG.

From the jacket of the book Letters to Henrietta, another potential miracle cure:
“Until the middle-aged, unmarried Isabella Bird (1831-1904) left her native Scotland for an independent life of travel, she was debilitated by illness, suffering from “neuralgia, pain in my bones, pricking like pins and needles in my limbs, excruciating nervousness, exhaustion, inflamed eyes, sore throat, swelling of the glands behind each ear, stupidity.” Bird was so weak that she required a steel support to hold her head up and spent most of her time confined to bed. Desperate to find a cure, her doctors finally packed her off to the Pacific and Switzerland. Once abroad, the forty-year-old invalid miraculously recovered, and became determined to seek any adventure that allowed her to see the singular beauty of nature. In Hawaii, she was the first woman to climb the world’s highest volcano; in Perak, she rode elephants through the jungles; in Colorado, she scaled 14,000-foot mountains, spent six months traveling mostly alone on horseback, and fell in love with a one-eyed
desperado named Rocky Mountain Jim. But whenever she went home to Scotland, her symptoms returned, making another trip essential. Bird’s remarkable journeys took her to the remotest parts of the world and brought her considerable fame. In this fascinating collection of Bird’s previously unpublished letters to her homebound younger sister Henrietta, one experiences her journeys firsthand and gains insight into the ambiguous private life of a woman who often invented her public face.
Containing correspondence from her first two grand tours to Australia, Hawaii, and Colorado in 1872-1873, and to Japan, China, Malaya, and the Holy Land in 1878-1879, Letters to Henrietta provides a fresh view of the legendary Victorian traveler.”

musicplasma tells me that Norah Jones is close to almost all my favorite artists. As with many such "if you like this, try this" tools, it has an inadequate understanding (or perhaps representation) of the many ways two things can be similar (or one thing can be different). The belief that someone who likes Queen will also enjoy Roger Taylor‘s solo work doesn’t take into account the fact that Roger didn’t especially like a lot of the music that Queen put out, especially in the later years. Or even the perfectly reasonable expectation that a solo record would be substantially different from the group’s work (otherwise, why bother?).

Why 47? Just ask the 47 Society.

National Hugging Day is on hump-day this year. I would have had no idea, had I not gotten the Oopsy-Daisy calendar for my office.

I was wandering through Vonda McIntyre’s site the other day, and ran across her list of pitfalls for writers. Then Pat Holt‘s Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See showed up on Blogdex. Maybe someone’s actually trying to literally tell me something.

I’ve always liked the idea of a hot tub without all the fuss and expense, so had my eye on furo-type heater that can be hooked up to a tank of your choice, such as an affordable stock tank. I don’t know how I feel about the Ikea-like plastic tub-ette, but check out the convection heater! Anybody know how to weld?