#70 cranes for save the children

[aloeverawrites]

Hi all. So we're aware of what's going on in the world right now and how it's affecting children.

I know that it seems hopeless but there's always something we can do. Even helping just one person is massively important and that's within our reach.

So please if you can, help me fundraise $350 US for Save the Children.

$350 could "provide two families of five with basic food commodities for a month."

Just $10 could treat 5 children for pneumonia. $20 could provide two weeks of peanut paste to a malnourished child. $30 could give a child a safe place to recover for 5 weeks.

If just two of you donated $5 dollars you could make a massive difference to five children and potentially save lives.

There are other ways to help including reblogging to increase visibility.

Also since I know tumblr likes making people do challenges, I'm going to make one paper crane for every five dollars donated, which will be 70 cranes by the time we hopefully reach our goal. You can message me and choose the color of your cranes as well as a positive message for the inside.

Thanks for reading this and for caring. Let's get to $350❤️

[jaydonsjam]

Man-Thing III

Here I am again to talk about Man-Thing! This’ll be a shorter post, as I’m only talking about Adventure Into Fear #17-18. In case, there’s new people reading my post, I have really loved the Adventure Into Fear series so far. Man-Thing has become one of the characters I look forward to most in Marvel’s horror genre. So let’s get into these two issues!

Adventure Into Fear #17

(Written by Steve Gerber with pencilling by Val Mayerik and inking by Sal Trapani)

I gotta say this is probably the weakest issue of Fear yet. They introduce a new character by the name of Wundarr who’s parents put him into a rocket ship as they were dying and he crash lands in the swamps of Florida. Though Wundarr is twenty years old, since he’s been in his ship he still maintains the mentality of a small child. I guess you could say there’s some humor in the fact that Wundarr sees Man-Thing as his mother since he opened his ship and released him.

The two developments I really liked was learning that Man-Thing thinks through sensations and touching and he hears through his forehead. I know these are little things to a lot of readers but to me, it gives me a better understanding for how Man-Thing operates. Plus, I found the moment when he put his forehead on the ship to be really cute. I also gotta say that I LOVED the nature documentary type feel the opening pages provided me with. Idk if that’s what Gerber was going for with the first few pages but that’s how it came across as you have Man-Thing trying to figure out what the metal object is.

Even though I’m saying this is a weak issue, I have to admit that it makes total sense that even though Wundarr is twenty, he’s had no interaction with anyone and he’s been stuck in his ship this whole time since a baby so he didn’t have a normal human-like or Dakkamite development. So I like the twist on the whole Superman origin story. Instead of Kal getting found as a baby, what if he was stuck in the ship for twenty years (if it could sustain him which seemingly, Wundarr’s ship did that for him.) then found? How would he have developed? Well, he’d have the mentality of a toddler/child. I like that exploration, I just think it felt out of place in this comic. Also, at this point, I think I’m a little tired of the “different take” on Superman thing. Cause we are inundated with that trope these days with Injustice, Omni-Man (Invincible is my favorite comic ever btw), Homelander, The Sentry, Hyperion etc. Plus this almost feels like a filler issue. This did make me want to see Man-Thing (who seems mystic in nature) and Superman fight. One of Superman’s weaknesses is magic/mystical stuff so who knows?

Adventure Into Fear #18

(Written by Steve Gerber with pencilling but Val Mayerik and inking by Sal Trapani)

We’re back into the politics of the 70’s, everyone. I don’t like getting political on this page so I’ll try to be brief. A drunk driver named Kevin Kennerman causes a crash with a bus that kills 50 people. We then follow the five survivors: Kevin, Jim Arsdale (a soldier), Mary Brown, Holden Crane (a student) and an unnamed kid as they trudge through the dangerous swamp to a town.

There’s lots of discussion about Vietnam (this comic was published in ‘73 a few months before the war officially ended) and saving life versus money etc. Jim being a soldier gets into many arguments and then a fight with Holden who represents the counter-culture of that time. I will say this is a great window into the politics of the time and I found myself often on the side of Holden and he was making a lot of great points (our political system only caring about money and bombing women and children of other countries). That’s as political as I’ll get lol cause I really don’t want to get into this on here. Maybe I’ll start a political blog eventually but not now. I did really enjoy this issue a lot. I liked all of the politics and examination of belief systems and if anyone actually cares about life. It’s deftly written by Steve Gerber and the art by Val Mayerik is fantastic. Man-Thing mostly takes a back seat besides saving the child at the beginning by lifting the metal debris and handing him to Mary. He also comes in again at the end to root out justice to the drunk maniac. Which by the way, Marvel seems to be showing more outright violence in their comics just without blood which I think is how some of this content gets by the Comics Code Authority. I loved seeing Kevin get his cause he does kill 52 people in this comic and tries to cover it up.

Both issues have quick a scene of Jennifer Kale, one where she’s awakened by a vision and the next she collapses from having a vision. So I guess we’ll find out what that’s about soon! Adventure Into Fear continues to be a great comic overall and I’m sad that next issue is the last Man-Thing one (although Morbius then takes over which sounds awesome) but then we get ready for his first solo series!

[alarajrogers]

And since I’m talking about cleaning up my display case...

Top floor: Discord hanging out with Fluttershy. Flippy from Happy Tree Friends. Stephanie, a doll I made when I was in fourth grade, who kind of looks like a creeper from Minecraft if you pasted yellow hair on them. Duchess from The Aristocats. Three handmade miniponies have stuck their head through a frosted chocolate donut... all of which were made during various “make a thing” sessions at BronyCon and Katsucon. Aisha, a stuffed cat I gave my husband when we started dating. Puffy, a stuffed cat my best friend’s mom made for my younger brother, to be the sister of Muffy (not shown here, Muffy has been in surgery for years.) A doll I bought at a children’s consignment show whose name I do not yet know. It used to be a lot easier to name dolls.

Putting the rest behind a readmore:

Fourth floor: Theme is Star Trek and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. A ceramic Q in judge’s costume with a collectible card behind him. Spock and Uhura, action figures from the 70′s. Large posable Q sitting on a stack of collectible cards that you can’t see, and he is actually holding a mini Discord on a keychain but you can’t see that. A standard 90′s action figure Q sitting on top of a globe inside a clear glass cube. He’s got an accessory in his lap, the planet Earth again. Large Discord and Fluttershy. A 3D printed Discord from Bronycon, painted, holding the Crystal Heart in one hand and peering through it. Guinan and Q up against the wall, disapproving of each other. Hugh the Borg. Unpainted 3D printed sculpture of Discord and Celestia dancing, in blue plastic. Two Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom and Scootaloo). A Fluttershy right next to the Discord with the Crystal Heart. Unpainted 3D printed slinking Discord who is really for posing on corners but I don’t have any safe ones. Unpainted 3D printed Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Apple Bloom. Derpy. Applejack. The manticore posed with a Fluttershy. Rarity posed with Steven Magnet. A moderately large Fluttershy. Four alicorns but Luna is in her Nightmare Moon phase. Rainbow Dash and Gilda posed with each other. Applejack and Crystal Pony Fluttershy check out a pair of Hagen Renaker miniature chickens. A Hagen Renaker Siamese cat.

Third floor: theme is X-Men. Big Magneto in back, next to weird looking Jean Grey as Phoenix. Mystique and Magneto action figures face off against each other. You can’t see why, but there’s a headless Rogue lying between them, so obviously Mystique is accusing Magneto and Magneto is all like “how dare you, Rogue was one of my dearest friends” blah blah. Movie Charles from the first movies. (You will never see an action figure of Charles or Erik from the second set of movies on my shelves; I absolutely despise the casting. Two great actors who look absolutely nothing at all like the characters they’re playing.) An Ian McKellan Magneto next to him wearing cape and helmet for extra pomposity. Movie Charles in the plastic wheelchair and a Magneto with a classic comic face arguing with him. Magneto is standing on some magnets. He is extremely unstable and leaning on Charles which is frankly on brand for Magneto. A ceramic flower arrangement from my grandmother. A Magneto in the back who I believe used to talk; he said “Mutants must rule” but it sounded like “Mutants need carrots” so now that’s a running joke around here. A whole bunch of Hagen Renaker Siamese cats. A moderately large Rainbow Dash. Storm action figure on a clear plastic boom crane so she’s flying. There’s a brick underneath her, I don’t even know why we’re saving that. Paperweight I made for my dad in second grade next to a rock one of my kids painted. Some weird animal thing I bought because it looked cool. Vinyl chibi Magneto. Chibi Xavier with Cerebro on. Chibi Rogue sitting down because she refuses to stand up and chibi Mystique next to her. A super tiny replica of an animal skull but I don’t know which animal, at Xavier’s feet. More Hagen Renaker miniature cats. Three background ponies (no, that isn’t Pinkie, the cutie mark is wrong) confer over a mysterious collection of rocks, an animal skull, and a giant 30-sided die.

Second floor: Less on-theme than anything else, basically “whatever else we wanted to display.” Harvey from Farscape in the back wearing Hawaiian shirt. Desire from Sandman. Rally and May from Gunsmith Cats. Armitage from Armitage III. Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop. They are all on top of a very old very small microscope in a wooden box. Elijah Snow and Jakita Wagner from Planetary. Lex Luthor from Smallville but you really can’t see him. A very large Discord and Fluttershy that I waited like a year for. Lain from Serial Experiments Lain with a laptop. A shell with little sheep made of shells, wearing hats, on it. A dish of marbles with a Hellsing badge in it. A Ginny doll that I once hung and covered with my mom’s lipstick to make it look like blood; don’t do that, the lipstick never fully came off. An origami bird. A ring box containing old coins. A miniature calico but I don’t know who made her. Another Ginny doll. Normally the Ginny I repaired today lives here too.

First floor: Gatchaman and Pokemon. Two Berg Katses in the back, one with mask and one without. A helmetless Ken though for some reason in my head he is actually Mark from Battle of the Planets; his cape has turned super brittle and broke off. Time Bokan collectible card. Casshan and his swan mom. A shell. A very tiny replica of Turtle King, the first Galactor mech. Ken’s boomerang. Plush Berg Katse. Chibi keychain characters: Katse, Ryu and Casshan leaning on the shell; chibi keychains of Ken, Joe, Jun and Jinpei leaning against wall. Big plastic Mew. A masterball. Four members of the Science Ninja Team as very tiny plastic doodads lying down. (I’m missing Ken.) A skeleton bobblehead. Two cats, one playing fiddle, one with accordion. Mewtwo tiny figure. Mew in a bouncy clear ball. Large Mewtwo with a remote control. A damaged dragon; I repaired his head and wings, but his upper jaw and left paw are missing. A cat going out shopping with her basket and shawl. Chibi minifigs of the Science Ninja Team plus Dr. Nambu. Vinyl Katse behind them. A Mewtwo that actually came with a Burger King equivalent of a Happy Meal. A Mew pez dispenser. Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas. A cat who has lost her tail. A rock my kids painted. Out of frame: a tiny Mew on the left and a keychain Mewtwo on the right who are hanging from the structure that holds the next shelf up. You can see them in the image of the second floor.

This used to be more strictly fannish, but one of my other display cabinets had to be taken down, and all of the little cats and the rocks my kids painted and stuff like that moved to this one.

This covers nearly all the fandoms I have ever written in, although there is far more Mew and Mewtwo than would be warranted by what I’ve written, and far less Scorpius from Farscape. Harvey sorta counts. There is no Doom Patrol, which I am definitely hoping to fix now that there is a TV show that might have merchandise.

[nitrateglow]

My bottom five new-to-me movies of 2020

2020 sucked. So did these movies. Before I do my customary top 20 favorite movie discoveries list, I wanted to share five very special new-to-me movies that were painful to watch. Forgive me if it all sounds like ranting. It probably is.

(And remember-- if you like any of these movies, that’s fine. I am not attacking YOU. I just didn’t like a movie. I know this is a stupid disclaimer to put on a list of opinions, but combing the venomous old IMDB message boards has me on edge a bit lol.)

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Whether you love the sequel trilogy or hate it, everyone pretty much agrees this movie was a mess. I thought no movie could have a more structurally unsound screenplay than The Crimes of Grindelwald, but Rise of Skywalker gives it staunch competition. It creates a new artform from making things up as the plot requires: new powers for Rey, new Macguffins to pursue, new motivations and backstories for characters.

I admit I dislike The Last Jedi. I dislike it a lot, actually, and it appears JJ Abrams did too from the amount of retconning he does here (Rey isn’t nobody! Honest, guys!). But you can’t backtrack THAT much. Either plot out your entire trilogy before shooting the first film or play fairly with the cards you were dealt by the filmmakers of movie two.

If anything, these movies have become a cautionary tale about not having a plan when making a movie trilogy. Now, George Lucas didn’t really have one either when he was making the original trilogy, but in that case, he wasn’t even sure the first movie was going to be a modest hit, let alone the biggest movie of the 1970s. He had an excuse and did well enough finishing the trilogy. Here, Disney knew there would be sequels, they knew they had a hungry audience, but they chose to just wing it and the results are just-- so disappointing, especially given the talented young actors and lovely special effects they had at their disposal.

The more I think about it, the more poetic the image of Palpatine hooked up to a life support system/crane is. The best ROTS can do is riff on earlier, better movies and hope our affection will make us overlook the awfulness.

Artemis Fowl

Outside of Animal Crossing, Artemis Fowl might have been the only entity to benefit (if only slightly) from the pandemic. I cannot imagine it would have been anything but a box office bomb had the theaters been open.

Artemis Fowl feels like it should have come out in 2003-- not just because the books were more prominent then, but the whole style of this film in general. In 2020, it’s positively anachronistic. The whole thing is a joyless attempt at dipping from the old Harry Potter well, with a bit of Spy Kids thrown in for good measure. Beyond that, it’s so poorly done as a whole. I have never read the Artemis Fowl books, but I watched this with a friend who has and his head near caught on fire. Apparently, it cuts out everything that made the books cool, like the protagonist basically being a kid version of a Bond villain. Here, he’s anything but that: he’s the usual bland child protagonist surrounded by a cast of slightly more interesting characters. Josh Gad seems to be the only one really trying. Judi Dench shows up and somehow gives a worse performance than whatever the hell she was doing in Cats.

I was actually shocked Kenneth Branagh of all people directed this. I generally like his films, even the less successful ones like his musical adaptation of Love’s Labors Lost. Even the uninspiring live-action Cinderella remake he helmed is at least pretty to look at-- Artemis Fowl has neither brains nor beauty to recommend it.

Bloodline

This film was intended to jumpstart a career comeback for Audrey Hepburn. This decidedly did not happen. One has to wonder what she saw in this sordid material in the first place. Maybe she really just wanted to work with director Terence Young again? Or she thought this would be a good, more modern take on her screen persona? I have no clue. All I know is that Bloodline is one of the worst big-budget Hollywood movies I have ever seen.

No contest: this is Audrey Hepburn’s worst movie. Hate on Green Mansions and Paris When It Sizzles until the stars turn to ash-- at least there was some fun camp value in them. The plot in Bloodline makes no sense, going into unrelated digressions that lead nowhere (did we really need that extended flashback about the dead father? or the subplot with Omar Shariff’s two families?). Oh and then there’s the awful sleazy snuff film subplot that’s also poorly developed and goes nowhere. Hepburn is game, but she can’t save the sinking ship. The best she can do is be charming in a terrible 70s perm.

Luckily, she made the underrated They All Laughed two years after this cinematic fecal matter bombed, so at the very least, Hepburn’s big screen swan song was a film worthy of her presence. (Hint: there will be more about that movie on my top 20 of the year list!)

Halloween III: The Season of the Witch

You all have no idea how excited I was to see this. All the mentions of it on Red Letter Media made it sound like deliriously entertaining schlock. I mean, it’s a movie in which the villain sells cursed Halloween masks that turn children’s heads into bugs and snakes! That sounds awesome! Instead, the movie is badly paced and boring: the main characters are uninteresting and the plot takes an interesting premise then does.... nothing with it. Nothing whatsoever. The second act is the cinematic equivalent of treading water. In fact, so little happens, that the filmmakers squeeze in a pointless sex scene between two character who have all the chemistry of a lit match and a bag of M&M’s.

The thing that annoys me most about this film is that it killed off a great concept: that all of the future Halloween films would be standalone stories centered around the spookiest time of the year. Unfortunately, this movie botched itself so badly that people often think the absence of Michael Meyers was the problem. It wasn’t: it was the absence of a good story.

Blindsided

This is probably the most watchable movie on this list, but that’s not saying much. A bloodless ripoff of Wait Until Dark, Blindsided is an unimaginative thriller with no thrills, humor, or interesting characters whatsoever.

The whole film is just repetitive. The situation doesn’t slowly boil to something horrific, the threat presented by the villains doesn’t escalate, there are no interesting interactions between the characters: no, here the underdeveloped protagonist is interrogated, tortured and/or sexually harassed, tries to escape, is recaptured, rinse and repeat for ninety minutes. I admit there’s some clever resourcefulness on the part of the heroine in the last scene-- but it’s basically just Wait Until Dark’s climax (down to the twist with the villain finding an alternative source of illumination for crying out loud!) without the emotional payoff that comes from slow-burn pacing or the fantastic performances, so even that’s a letdown.

I thought the movie might at least be saved by Michael Keaton as the main criminal mastermind since he’s shown he can be a great villain in other movies (if they had remade Wait in the 80s, he would have been a perfect Harry Roat Jr.), but even he seems to be phoning it in here. Beyond a scene of attempted cat murder (I’m serious-- the bad guys are so incompetent they can’t even kill a cat), there’s not even anything so bad it’s good to enjoy. Blindsided is just dull and by-the-numbers.

[gretahs]

pls post the rewrite 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 need me a shot of serotonin

There’s something so beautiful about looking at space through the scuffed glass of a T-70 windshield.

Everything looks a little smudged: the stars bleed into each other just enough to look like patterns of light on a pool of rippling water, the kaleidoscope of ionized clouds changing in colour and tone depending on how Poe tilts his head. His mother once described it as the reflection of a clear night sky on a bottomless lake, as they sat beneath the tree on Yavin IV with her helmet pulled down over his eyes.

If he listens, past the familiar staccato vibration behind him and the white noise chatter over the comm and the sound of BB-8 whistling something to itself, he can almost hear the tuneless silence of the galaxy, something he used to crane his ears to hear back when he had two feet on the ground on Yavin IV. It’s the gaping nothingness that sings to him, past the planets and systems and traffic, that someday he’ll take his hands off the joystick and float away into the abyss and find out where that song is calling him to.

Now, though, they’ve entered the debris, and that conversation fades into a concentrated quiet, and he flicks on his responder again. Even now, days later, the open, jagged wound the New Republic left behind is bleeding and raw. Starkiller did its job well: it pulverised Hosnian and her sister planets to dust, dragging fleeing ships back with a bright red, stinging grasp, and ate them all to ash. Space here is thick with dust and smouldering sparks, but here and there Poe can catch glimpses: of houses, buildings, ships, trees, moons.

Of bodies.

“All clear in Sector Three,” Testor says, her voice cracking in grief, and to his left he watches as Blue Three swerves around a sphere of cracking, scorched marble.

“All clear in Eighth Sector,” from Iolo.

Karé says: “Nothing at Courtsilius – Sector Thirteen –” before cutting herself off with a horrible gasping sound as the hull of a broken starship floats past, wires idly buzzing with the ghost of life, and from its open rim are floating hands and hair and montrals and faces reaching outwards, nails frozen over and blue and unfeeling. Someone gags, and Poe realises as he bends over it’s him, and he has to choke back bile and tear his helmet off his head, gasping through the recycled air.

His eyes are shut, so all he can hear is a chorus of horror as his squadron grieves. A fleet of escapees, it seems, trapped in time and unable to decay. Rows and rows of transports torn in two: not warships but civilians, old and young and children, running for their lives. Poe can hear BB-8 whistling in a worried tone behind him, a comforting sound of Friend-Poe Friend-Poe Friend-Poe Friend-Poe Friend-Poe, but all the same he keeps his eyes screwed shut until the nausea passes, until he can rub furiously at the wetness on his cheeks without fear of vomiting at the sight. When he pulls his visor back down its to silence, because they’ve flown into a graveyard.

They’ve been tasked with locating any survivors, Poe knows, and that General Organa wishes to keep hope alive no matter what, regardless of the adversity, but in that moment, as he sees screams of silent agony and terror and desperation, the despair is almost crippling.

As long as there’s light we’ve got a chance, he thinks to himself. The heat of the attack had ignited Hosnian Prime’s core, so that even those furthest from the point of impact had been incinerated when their planet had erupted from beneath their feet. From D’Qar, it still shone as a temporary sun, but from this distance it had long since spluttered out into a swirling black pit that caught more like than it broadcast. He’d been looking up at Raysho from the tarmac just that morning, leaning backwards and watching as five hundred billion lives lived on in the past. Poe had almost expected to fly out and somehow find the Republic still intact, that Korr Sella would greet them with a sharp smile and a quick word for Leia in the atmosphere, that he could pass beneath the clouds and feel the earth beneath his feet.

Space is beautiful, but like an ocean it didn’t discriminate between those it swallows whole.

His comm clicks back on.

“I’ve got something,” Paige says. She’s speaking past her filter unit so her voice is mechanised and toned, but Poe can still tell that she sounds confused. Disturbed.

Poe frowns. “This is Black One, please clarify.”

“Starboard side, at your three o’clock.” Karé this time, and he watches as she carefully flies the transport to their right, away from where they held in tight formation. Her voice turns panicked. “Poe– Poe –”

“Force there’s more,” Iolo says, his voice hushed, and as a line of debris rolls past him, Poe finally sees: if the junkyard they had passed through was a graveyard, then this was a battlefield.

The carnage seems endless, a forest of shrapnel and metal bent into circles in the heat, shattered glass shining like crystals past the broken bodies of hundreds, thousands, of people, both military and bystander alike. He’s holding the joystick in both hands, but his fingers are slick with sweat and frozen in his gloves, and he can’t tilt it forward. He’s stuck, peering out that scuffed windshield at a field of indescribable horror, and somehow he can hear himself keep speaking.

“I need a scan,” says the stranger with his voice, “right now, immediately. Paige? If there are survivors, if anyone survived out here we need to locate them and – and get them on the damn transport. Iolo, Testor, I need a broader scope of the damage. Is this the fleet? Is there a possibility that we missed–” He stops, and blinks furiously, jerking Black One suddenly sideways to BB’s sudden loud beeps, and pulling up closer to the wreckage of a T-85, peering as far forward as the straps on his suit will allow. “– that we…”

“Poe?” Karé asks. She can’t get close to him because of the cumbersome size of her craft, but he knows she’s halted behind him, ready to engage, and he doesn’t turn to check. “Poe – Poe what do we –?”

“Run a diagnostic on that ship,” he says, and BB burbles out a concerned reply. “No, wait, hang on. I said hang on Paige!”

There’s a ringing in the helmet, but all he can do is stare forward past the glass, past Black One and his team and the wreckage and the death and the fire so hot it still smoulders in space, as a giant, looming shadow falls over them.

“Iolo.” His voice is cracked and almost a whisper. A line of sweat curls around his jaw, and down his throat. He doesn’t look away. “Iolo, get them out of here now.”

“Poe –!”

“You need to go now!”

“The civilians –” Testor is steel beneath a sob. “There could still be civilians in those ships, we can’t just –”

“Black One,” Snap crackles in over the line, “we’ve got a dreadnought on your starboard side. Repeat, you need to go now!”

“How is that possible?” Paige says, through heaving breaths, “that’s not – this is closed space – does that mean that they broke through and murdered –”

“How do they have a ship!” Karé shouts back, abandoning comm protocol entirely with the horror. “We destroyed their base!”

“Poe!” Iolo, his voice unsteady.

His heart jerks back into his chest, and he comes back to himself with his hands trembling on the controls and screams in his ears. Everything feels flushed, but he knows that if he were to reach out in front of him, it would be cold to the touch. Get it together, says the little General Organa in his head, come on, these people here died for something, honour them by saving your own! RUN!

Poe shouts: “Disperse! Kondro manoeuvre to my port side! Disperse and regroup outside the flare! Disperse! Disperse!”

Then he hits the throttle, and swallows his cowardice, and leaves the people, their people, the people of the ashes of the Republic, behind to the inky black.

[noonetosmilefor]

Flower asks.

Thank you once more, @uneven-odds. <3

Alisons: Sexuality? - Straight.

Amaranth: Pronouns/Gender? - Her.

Amaryllis: Birthday? - 11th of July.

Anemone: Favorite flower? - Tulip.

Angelonia: Favorite t.v. show? - Stranger Things.

Arum-Lily: What’s the farthest you’d go for a stranger? - As far as saving their life without risking mine.

Aster: What’s one of your favorite quotes? - “Nothing in the world can trouble you as much as your own thoughts.”

Aubrieta: Favorite drink? - Tea.

Baby’s Breath: Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? - No.

Balsam Fir: Have you ever been in love? - Yes.

Baneberries: Favorite song? - Currently Lost by Dermot Kennedy. (Or literally the whole album.)

Basket of Gold: Describe your family. - Close, open-minded, strong, supporting. (I love them!)

Beebalm: Do you have a best friend? Who is it? - Yes. Her name is Iris and we’ve know each other for 9 years already and I love her so so much! 

Begonia: Favorite color? - Blue.

Bellflower: Favorite animal? - Horses.

Bergenia: Are you a morning or night person? - Night person.

Black-Eyed Susan: If you could be any animal for a day, what would it be? - Eagle.

Bloodroots: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? - Veterinarian. 

Bluemink: What are your thoughts on children? - I’m not a big fan of children but if a child smiles at me, you sure as hell can bet that I’d smile right back at them.

Blazing Stars: What are you afraid of? Is there a reason why? - Losing loved ones, well it’s self-explaining.

Borage: Give a random fact about your childhood. - It really was a safe and carefree childhood and I had everything and everyone I needed.

Bugleherb: How would you spend your last day on Earth? - Hiking to my favorite place and reading my favorite book.

Buttercup: Relationship Status? - Single.

Camelia: If you could visit anywhere, where would you want to go? - New Zealand.

Candytufts: When do you feel most loved? - Whenever I’m with people who love and accept me the way I am.

Canna: Do you have any tattoos? - Nope.

Canterbury Bells: Do you have any piercings? - No.  

California Poppy: Height? - 5′9″.

Cardinal Flower: Do you believe in ghosts? - Yes.

Carnation: What are you currently wearing? - Just a t-shirt.

Catnip: Have you ever slept with a nightlight? - Yes, as a child.

Chives: Who was the last person you hugged? - My sister.

Chrysanthemum: Who’s the last person you kissed? - Someone I don’t want to kiss again.

Cock’s Comb: Favorite font? - Don’t really have one.

Columbine: Are you tired? - Kinda.

Common Boneset: What are you looking forward to? - Winter.

Coneflower: Dream job? - My job right now.

Crane’s-Bill: Introvert or extrovert? - Inbetweenie.

Crocus: Have you ever been in love? - Yes.

Crown Imperial: What’s the farthest you would go for someone you care about? - Far FAR and beyond.

Cyclamen: Did you have a favorite stuffed animal as a child? What was it? - Yes, a white tiger.

Daffodil: What’s your zodiac sign? - Cancer.

Dahlia: Have you done anything worth remembering? - I don’t think so..

Daisy: What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment? - Being myself and self-confident.

Daylily: What would you do if your parents didn’t like your partner(s)? - Well I never thought about that haha.

Dendrobium: Who is the last person that you said “I love you” to? - To someone I don’t want to be reminded about.

False Goat’s Beard: What is something you are good at? - Listening.

Foxgloves: What’s something you’re bad at? - Opening up.

Freesia: What are three good things that have happened in the past month? - I found out what I want, I had some time for myself and I’ve been with one of my best friends for a few days.

Garden Cosmos: How was your day today? - Okay, I’d say.

Gardenia: Are you happy with where you’re at in your life? - Kind of, not fully.

Gladiolus: What is something you hope to do in the next year or two? - Traveling more.

Glory-of-the-Snow: What are ten things that make you happy/you’re grateful to have in your life? - My friends, my family, my pets, music, books, especially Sebastian Fitzek’s books haha, health, traveling, cinematography and my home.

Heliotropium: What helps you calm down when you feel stressed? - Watching HIMYM.

Hellebore: How do you show affection? - By listening to people.

Hoary Stock: What are you proudest of? - My family.

Hollyhock: Describe your ideal day. - Waking up late, getting some breakfast, drinking tea and reading a good book, probably napping haha, some more reading, going for a walk and back to bed again.

Hyacinth: What do you like to do in your free time? - Sleeping, going to the movies, reading and traveling.

Hydrangea: How long have you known your best friend? How did you meet them? - 9 years. I’ve met her in school.

Irises: Who can you talk to about (almost) everything? - @uneven-odds. <3

Laceleaf: How many friends do you have? - If I do count really close and good friends, around 10.

Lantanas: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received? - That I’m the kindest and funniest person they’ve ever met. It shocked me tbh.

Larkspur: What do you think of yourself? - I’m too stubborn and that I can’t really show my emotions.

Lavender: What’s your favorite thing about yourself? - My patience. 

Leather Flower: What’s your least favorite thing about yourself? - The fact that I’m too much of a perfectionist sometimes.

Lilac: What’s something you liked to do as a child? - Race against my dad.

Lily: Who was your best friend when you were a kid? - A girl called Tamara.

Lily of the Incas: What is something you still feel guilty for? - Not being there for one of my friends when he needed me..

Lily of the Nile: What is something you feel guilty for that you shouldn’t feel guilty about? - Loving the person I loved.

Lupine: What does your name mean? Why is that your name? - So I googled it and it means “the anointed one”. My mum and dad named me after my mum’s brother, his name is Christian. My mum loves him so much, that I got this name, well the feminine form.

Marigold: Where did you grow up? Tell us about it. - In a suburbia. It’s very small but I love it here. I do love Vienna and it’s not that far away. But here in this small town is where I feel most comfortable.

Morning Glory: What was your bedroom like growing up? - Big, full of wood furniture and toys and a few posters of the Backstreet Boys.

Mugworts: What was it like for you as a teenager? Did you enjoy your teenage years? - I did not really enjoy my teenage years at first. But I’ve always been grumpy about everything. That has changed through the years and I had happier teenage years later on.

Norwegian Angelica: Tell us about your mom. - I love her and she is one of the toughest women I know. I’m sad that she feels left out that often and that I can’t really give and show her the credit she deserves. Because she deserves the world, really.

Onions: Tell about your dad. - My dad is the best dad. Even after he and my mom got divorced he’s always been there for us. And he did everything he could for us to be happy. I’m very thankful for that.

Orchid: Tell about your grandparents. - When I think about them I almost every time start crying. They’re in their 70s now and I’m constantly worried that I’d loose them. They’re 2 of the greatest people in the whole world - they deserve the whole world. And if I ever feel annoyed by them I do cry a few hours later. I love them so much. Sometimes I wish I could die before they do so I don’t have to feel the pain of losing them..

Pansy: What was your most memorable birthday? What made it be so memorable? - My most memorable birthday was on my 11th birthday with my best friends and cousins. It’s been so carefree and full of laughter.

Peony: What was your first job? - My first job was the job I’m doing right now.

Petunia: If you’re in a relationship, how did you meet your partner(s)? If you’re not in a relationship, how did you meet your crush/how do you hope to meet your future partner(s), if you want any? - I don’t have a special plan on how I want to meet my future partner. If it happens, it happens.

Pincushion: How do you deal with pain? - I don’t. It sounds hard but I just ignore it until it get’s too much and then it literally bursts out and I can’t stop crying for literally 5 hours or so.

Pink: Where is home? - Wherever the people I love are.

Plantain Lilies: If you could go back in time, what is one thing you would stop/change? - I’d stop the cancer that killed my half-sisters mother.. she’s been like a second mom to me.

Prairie Gentian: Who is someone you look up to? Describe them. - My dad. He literally had no one who supported him when he was younger but he somehow managed to build his life and stand on his own two feet. He managed to give the love he never received from anyone before, to my sisters and me and I really admire him for that.

Primrose: Describe your ideal life. - Carefree and happy.

Rhodendron: What is something you used to believe in as a child? - Elves.

Ricinus: Who’s the most important in your life? - My sisters.

Rose: What’s your favorite sound? - The sound of people’s genuine laughter.

Rosemallows: What’s your favorite memory? - One night in Berlin with @uneven-odds. (That sounds so wrong, but you know which one I mean haha. <3)

Sage: What’s your least favorite memory? - My “second” mom dying.

Snapdragon: At this moment, what do you want? - Inner peace.

St. John’s Wort: Is it easy or difficult for you to express how you feel about things? - It’s very difficult for me because I rarely open up, not even to my closest friends.

Sunflower: What is something you don’t want to imagine life without? - My family.

Sweet Pea: How much sleep did you get last night? - Around 7 hours.

Tickseed: What’s your main reason to get up every morning? - Work.

Touch-Me-Not: How do you feel about your current job? - I love it.

Transvaal Daisy: What’s your favorite item of clothing? - My yellow trench coat.

Tropical White Morning Glory: Describe your aesthetic. - My aesthetics are always plants and books.

Tulip: What would be the best present to get you? - Books.

Vervain: What’s stressing you out most right now? - My future.

Wisteria: How many books have you read in the past few months? What were they called? - None because I’ve been too busy to read.

Wolf’s Bane: Where do you want to be in life this time next year? - At the same place but a little happier.

Yarrow: Do you know what vore is? - If it’s from the Latin word “vorare”, it means “to swallow” as far as I can remember but idk really haha.

Zinnia: Give a random fact about yourself. - I love doing my nails. Ok, that was really random haha.

[xtruss]

A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite

In a Long Island town, neighbors now make assumptions, true and sometimes false, about people who conspicuously display American flags.

Peter Treiber Jr., a farmer, said he was taken aback that a customer thought he was conservative because of the flag painted on his potato truck. Credit...Johnny Milano for The New York Times

By Sarah Maslin Nir

July 3, 2021

SOUTHOLD, N.Y. — The American flag flies in paint on the side of Peter Treiber Jr.’s potato truck, a local landmark parked permanently on County Route 48, doing little more, he thought, than drawing attention to his family’s farm.

Until he tried to sell his produce.

At a local greenmarket where he sells things like wild bergamot, honey and sunflowers, he had trouble striking a deal until, he said, he let his liberal leanings slip out in conversation with a customer.

“She said, ‘Oh, whew. You know, I wasn’t so sure about you, I thought you were some flag-waving something-or-other,’” Mr. Treiber, 32, recalled the woman saying and citing his potato truck display. “That’s why she was apprehensive of interacting with me.”

He paused: “It was a little sad to me. It shows the dichotomy of the country that a flag can mean that. That I had to think, ‘Do I need to reconsider having that out there?’”

Thirteen stripes, a dusting of stars, the American flag has had infinite meanings over the 244 years since the country began flying one. Raised at Iwo Jima, it was a symbol of victory. Lit on fire, it became a searing image of the protests against the Vietnam War. Ribboned around the twin towers on commemorative Sept. 11 lapel pins, it is a reminder of the threats against a delicate democracy.

Politicians of both parties have long sought to wrap themselves in the flag. But something may be changing: Today, flying the flag from the back of a pickup truck or over a lawn is increasingly seen as a clue, albeit an imperfect one, to a person’s political affiliation in a deeply divided nation.

Supporters of former President Donald J. Trump have embraced the flag so fervently — at his rallies, across conservative media and even during the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — that many liberals like Mr. Treiber worry that the left has all but ceded the national emblem to the right.

What was once a unifying symbol — there is a star on it for each state, after all — is now alienating to some, its stripes now fault lines between people who kneel while “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays and those for whom not pledging allegiance is an affront.

And it has made the celebration of the Fourth of July, of patriotic bunting and cakes with blueberries and strawberries arranged into Old Glory, into another cleft in a country that seems no longer quite so indivisible, under a flag threatening to fray.

Mr. Treiber’s farm is in the town of Southold, a string of hamlets and a village on the North Fork of Long Island’s Suffolk County. The county chose Mr. Trump for president in 2020 by just 232 votes out of more than 770,000 cast.

Southold is predominantly white, with a small, longstanding Black population — families who reside mostly in the village, Greenport, at the edge of the salty Peconic Bay. There is also a significant Latino population, many of them undocumented, their labor underpinning the vineyards, farms and landscaping businesses that line the peninsula.

The pressure to draw partisan lines is fierce.

David Surozenski, a Republican, refused to add Trump flags to his display. “That’s not the way I was brought up,” he said. “The American flag political? No.” Credit...Johnny Milano for The New York Times

Just across the street from Treiber Farms, David Surozenski, 66, was weeding around the flagpole in his front yard a few days before the Fourth of July. Bouquets of miniature American flags flapped among the marigolds at his feet. Above him flew the flags of the Marines and the Coast Guard — he has children in each service — and at the top, an American flag.

A Republican, Mr. Surozenski said friends constantly pressured him to add Trump banners to his flag-and-flower garden, to fly “Make America Great Again” signs between his red, white and blue pinwheels whirling in the grass. But Mr. Surozenski declined — some of his eight children are Democrats.

“They said, ‘Dave, you’ve got to put Trump’s flag up!’ and I said, ‘No, that’s not happening,’” Mr. Surozenski recalled. “That’s not the way I was brought up. The American flag political? No.”

About 70 percent of Americans say the flag makes them feel proud, according to a recent survey by YouGov, a global public opinion and data research firm, and NBCLX, a mobile information platform. The sentiment was shared by about 80 percent of white Americans, just under 70 percent of Hispanic Americans and slightly less than 60 percent of Black Americans.

The divisions were deeper when it came to politics. While 66 percent of Republicans surveyed said they associated the flag with their own party, only 34 percent of Democrats said the same.

At its 1777 inception, the flag’s very design signified unity, the joining of the 13 colonies, said John R. Vile, a professor of political science and a dean at Middle Tennessee State University.

Politicizing the American flag is thus a perversion of its original intent, according to Professor Vile, who is also the author of “The American Flag: An Encyclopedia of the Stars and Stripes In U.S. History, Culture and Law.” He added, “We can’t allow that to happen.”

“It’s E Pluribus Unum — from many, one,” he said, citing the Latin motto on the Great Seal of the United States. “If the pluribus overwhelms the unum, then what do we have left?”

The sentiment of some conservatives is that a line was drawn when Colin Kaepernick, the former National Football League quarterback, set off a national movement protesting the shootings of Black men by police by taking a knee during the anthem in 2016. His kneeling protest, Mr. Kaepernick has said, still demonstrated respect for the flag, but others saw him as hijacking the flag for political purposes.

Maryneily Rodriguez, 33, said she believed that Mr. Trump’s most fervent supporters had done the same. Ms. Rodriguez, who was visiting Greenport with her fiancé during the Fourth of July weekend, said that she once regularly flew the flag at her home in Freeport, about 80 miles west on Long Island, taking it down only in winter for safekeeping. But about three years ago when spring came, Ms. Rodriguez, who is Black and a Democrat, left the flag in storage. It hasn’t come out since.

“It felt like it didn’t belong to me anymore,” she said.

John Hocker, a Republican who said he sometimes votes Democratic, also said he felt the flag had lost its meaning of unity. Instead of saluting the same flag as one people, he said, too many Americans were modifying it to become emblems of their own identities or belief systems, for instance with rainbow stripes, a symbol of gay pride, or blue stripes to show solidarity with the police.

He flies the flag — the red, white and blue one — from a towering crane several stories above the gravel piles of Latham Sand & Gravel, where he is a co-owner.

“There is a lot of history with this country, some that maybe people don’t like today, and some that people are being judged for today for what they did 300 years ago,” he s­aid.

“It’s still our country and every good and bad thing made it our country,” Mr. Hocker said, glancing upward. “And that’s what that represents.”

The culture war he was alluding to was on full display a few miles away, hanging from the eaves of an empty roadside stand: “SAVE AMERICA” was printed along the flag’s top border, and below: “FIGHT SOCIALISM.”

And on a notice tacked nearby: “If this offends you LEAVE.”

A flag, and a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance meant to convey unity, is displayed on the billboard for St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Greenport. Credit...Johnny Milano for The New York Times

At Rinconcito Hispano in Greenport, Ana Perez, 33, served up pupusas, stuffed masa flour patties from her native El Salvador, to customers who ordered exclusively in Spanish. Many of them are the laborers who clean the pools at the beach houses and scare the crows off the grapes at the wineries.

In 2017, as Mr. Trump began his crackdown on illegal immigration, village trustees unanimously adopted a resolution to declare Greenport “a welcoming community.” One resident opposing the measure at the meeting urged the public to call and report anyone who employed undocumented immigrants. Wearing an American flag on his chest, he held up a sign with a phone number.

Ms. Perez said she has an American flag T-shirt, too, and she intended to wear it on the holiday. “This symbolizes this country, and I live in this country,” she said, speaking in Spanish because she is not fluent in English. “This flag is for all.”

Maryneily Rodriguez and Anthony Dipolito, who are engaged, walked through a forest of American flags in Greenport while on vacation. Credit...Johnny Milano for The New York Times

Strolling with her fiancé, Anthony Dipolito, Ms. Rodriguez took in the 1920 wooden carousel beside the marina in Greenport.

As she crossed through Mitchell Park, she was struck by the sight of a forest of American flags. It was not a prop for a political rally, but rather a peaceful “field of honor” installed by the Greenport Rotary Club.

Each flag represented not an ideological belief, according to the club, but a veteran or other citizen who had inspired or helped the community.

“I’ve always loved the American flag so much, and now seeing it by the carousel I felt happy again,” Ms. Rodriguez said, as all around her red, white, and blue cloth still waved. “And I haven’t felt that way about the flag in such a long time.”

Correction: July 3, 2021

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to an organization that had installed a flag display. It was the Greenport Rotary Club, not the Greenpoint Rotary Club.

— Sarah Maslin Nir covers breaking news for the Metro section. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her series “Unvarnished,” an investigation into New York City’s nail salon industry that documented the exploitative labor practices and health issues manicurists face. @SarahMaslinNir

[charterhunter529]

Family Sketch

Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG [adapted from the author’s article in New England Ancestors 8:3 (Summer 2007):41–42, 45]

Do you have a thick file or a notebook full of information you’d like to write up for your family? Or even boxes and boxes of it? Maybe your data is in Family Tree Maker or some other program. Or maybe you’re just in the beginning stages of your research. In any case, whether you just want to write about your grandparents or compile a whole book, the basic building block is the family sketch, treating a couple and their children in an organized and interesting way. Word processing, extremely flexible, is a wonderful tool for genealogists. Remember the old days when we had to cut and paste and retype, perhaps introducing new errors as we went along? About twenty years ago, NEHGS sponsored a seminar held at the Museum of Science here in Boston. My only memory of the whole day is Alicia Crane Williams saying, “As soon as you get a little information, put it in Register style. This is part of the research process.” So I went home and on my quaint little Apple IIe began transcribing old family group sheets crammed with information. My descendants might just take them to the dump! What is a family sketch? It’s just a story with a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning is the first paragraph that contains the vital information about the parents — all of it. So, if the reader later wants to check back to see just when your great-grandmother married her second husband, it’s easy to find. The middle is whatever you want, usually a biography in chronological order. It could include funny stories or a serious analysis distinguishing between your grandfather and another fellow who bore the same name. At the end is a list of children with their vital data. You may have mentioned each child as he or she joined the family, married, or died, in the biography above, but it’s still important to have a straightforward list of children at the end. Children for whom there is a lot of information may be continued in their own sketches. You can begin with just shreds of information. I started one sketch with my mother’s memories, her grandparents’ names and the recollection that she would sit on her grandfather’s lap and braid his side whiskers — plus the fact that he was a Congregational minister. Then I listed her mother, her aunt, and her uncles, using “Conversation with . . . ” and her name and relationship in footnotes. On the other hand, I have many folders of notes gleaned in the ’70s and ’80s, b.c. (before computers). It’s fun to open one, outline the family structure, and start adding information almost at random as I go through the file. As I work, I can see where I need to bolster a statement with pertinent analysis or where I could undertake more research. Before starting to write, you might read some sections in Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century,[1] especially the pages that diagram the different elements of the parents’ and children’s paragraphs. There isn’t space here to discuss all the fine points, including numbering systems.[2] Many other matters, such as whether to use abbreviations, are really your own personal preference. Generally the fewer the abbreviations, the smoother the reading. Complete sentences, rather than lots of semicolons, also make reading easier. Now you can just start writing. But here’s a suggestion: if you are going to start from scratch (as opposed to creating a “report” from your genealogy database), go to AmericanAncestors.org. Click on the Publication tab, then on theRegister, and then under Side Links, on “Download a Register Style Template for Microsoft Word.” Then “Download the Template!” If you have Microsoft Word on your computer, a document that can function as a template will open. I won’t repeat all that the template says, but it will help you format your sketch, especially those pesky children who appear in hanging paragraphs. This template contains all the “styles” that we use in the Register, everything from title to footnotes. The word “style” here does not refer to Register “style.” It is a word-processing term that refers to the format of each paragraph. When you open Word, you will be in “normal” style, but this paragraph is being written in “body text indent.” The only difference is that the first line is indented. Hanging paragraphs for children are more complicated. These paragraphs line up roman numerals on a “right tab.” There are even styles for quotations and grandchildren. If you’ve already arranged some material and want to use that template, simply copy your work into the blank template. First select your whole document and make sure it’s in normal style. Go to “Format,” then “Style,” and select “normal.” Delete all tabs and spaces you added to format the children. After pasting your work into the new document, save it under the name you want to use. Then review the text and select the “style” for each paragraph by placing your cursor in the paragraph and choosing the style from the Format menu. There should be a little window on your toolbar that lists the styles and offers a quicker route. You can select many paragraphs at once. (A technical detail: if you want to edit the style in any way, say choosing a different font or left-justified text, go to the Format menu, choose “Style,” and click on “Modify.”) In the Register we generally use “normal” style for the first paragraph where the parents’ vital data appear. Then we switch to “body text indent” for the biography. We introduce the children with a “kid’s intro” style and then choose “kids.” When you use that style, hit tab, then the first Roman numeral and a period, then hit tab again. Both tabs will then appear, and you can start typing the child’s name. Small caps are very elegant here. Notice that we include the surname for each child. Then there’s no doubt about the surname and indexing is easier. If you want to list grandchildren, you’ll find the “grandkids” style works a little differently. No tabs needed. Just type the arabic numeral and a period. Then two hard spaces help the names line up nicely [use Control-Shift-Space]. In the Register we use italics for grandchildren’s names. Even the footnotes and footnote references have their own styles. We encourage you to cite your sources for everything. Footnotes are much handier if your readers will really use them, but endnotes may seem less intimidating. The basics of citation format are not difficult. Look at issues of the Register for examples. A current guide is Evidence!,[3] good to have at hand, but the Register often uses simpler formats. The Chicago Manual of Style is also helpful.[4] It saves time to enter the notes correctly the first time. (By the way, the footnote reference number goes after the punctuation.) A further hint about writing style: try reading your work out loud. Are you using empty phrases you would never use when talking? Can you say something more concisely? Are your sentences really sentences? Passive voice — “The ball was hit by the boy,” rather than “The boy hit the ball” — deadens the tone. And proofread, proofread, proofread. You’ll improve your sketch every time.

All the best Family Sketch Images 38+ collected on this page. Feel free to explore, study and enjoy paintings with PaintingValley.com. As I look toward shifting to a different family line in my own research, I think I’m going to take the time to write a bio sketch for the main ancestor I’ve been researching, George Washington Adams (1845-1938) before I say goodby to him for a little while. I think it should be a fun exercise. 93,432 family sketch stock photos, vectors, and illustrations are available royalty-free. See family sketch stock video clips. Family future plan group of sketch family people walking in the garden building a family sketches of future family design interior family sketch color family and money family with money thinking wall.

Finally, for the “icing on the cake,” dress up your sketch with illustrations! Insert photos, autographs, pictures of houses and gravestones, the ship on which your ancestors crossed the ocean, maps — whatever you can find. Your final product should be elegant and attractive, not just to your children but to their grandchildren and beyond.

Sidebar:

A few little tips

Commas and periods go inside a closing quote; semicolons outside.

Footnote reference numbers come after the punctuation.

Titles of published books should be italicized.

Titles of articles and unpublished materials need quotation marks.

Titles of sources such as land, probate, and vital records do not need italics or quotes unless they are published.

Proofread on another day.

Try reading your prose out loud!

Sidebar 2:

Polishing that database reports

In word processing you can discuss all sorts of nuances of dates, places, and identities wherever they seem to fit. Such additions are not so easy when working with a genealogy database. There are quite a few differences between what we consider Register style and the quasi-Register-style report generated by most genealogy programs. If you are using one of these programs, here are some things to consider.

Once you have generated a report, it will carry its own set of word-processing “styles.” You can just accept them, or eliminate all of them by selecting the whole document and putting it in “normal” style as described above, then copying it into a blank Register template. If you do so, eliminate any sex designations for the children first. (You can easily comment on any unusual name in the text or a footnote.)

Family Sketch Clipart Black And White

You should make some other changes as well. First, consider the order of the information. Do the wife’s name and vital data appear after the husband’s notes, with notes on her following? Move information on the wife into the husband’s paragraph and integrate her notes with his. Next, did you document those notes with citations in parentheses? All citations need to be moved into footnotes (or endnotes if you prefer). Multiple footnotes for the same piece of data should be combined into one note, with semicolons between the different sources. You must also consider the format of names, dates, and places. Small caps are good for names, but your report will probably have a mixture of lower and upper case. Capitalizing names of the parents of husband and wife would be distracting. Place names don’t require a county or state after first use in each sketch, but it’s helpful to the reader to add “County” where appropriate. Postal codes are also distracting. In the Register we spell out the names of months and states in the main text and abbreviate them (except those with five letters or less), with periods, in the children’s paragraph

Family Sketch Picture

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1Michael J. Leclerc and Henry B. Hoff, ed., Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century, 2nd ed. (Boston: NEHGS, 2006). 2See Joan Ferris Curran, Madilyn Coen Crane, and John H. Wray, Numbering Your Genealogy: Basic Systems, Complex Families, and International Kin, National Genealogical Society Special Publication No. 64 (Arlington, Va.: National Genealogical Society, 1999). 3Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997). The introductory sections of this book are especially valuable. 4The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2003).

Cartoon Drawing Of A Family

This book publishes, for the first time in full, the two most revealing of Mark Twain’s private writings. Here he turns his mind to the daily life he shared with his wife Livy, their three daughters, a great many servants, and an imposing array of pets. These first-hand accounts display this gifted and loving family in the period of its flourishing. Mark Twain began to write “A Family Sketch” in response to the early death of his eldest daughter, Susy, but the manuscript grew under his hands to become an exuberant account of the entire household. His record of the childrens’ sayings—“Small Foolishnesses”—is next, followed by the related manuscript “At the Farm.” Also included are selections from Livy’s 1885 diary and an authoritative edition of Susy’s biography of her father, written when she was a teenager. Newly edited from the original manuscripts, this anthology is a unique record of a fascinating family.

[aloeverawrites]

Attention Tumblr

There's a fundraiser going on for Save The Children called 70 Cranes for Save the Children.

I've been making one crane per $5 donation. And now you guys can too! Making cranes and posting them online with the hashtag #70 cranes for save the children boosts visibility of the fundraiser, which equals more donations for kids around the world.

So if you like origami or want to try to learn, consider joining the challenge! Right now we're at 11 cranes so that's 1 crane a day for the next week and a half!

[jennymanrique]

Texas is the deadliest state for construction workers

Emergency workers arrived in West Dallas to rescue wounded workers after the collapse of a house under construction. Photo: SHABAN ATHUMAN / DMN

The death of a Mexican construction worker after a building collapsed in West Dallas on Oct. 8 adds to the 14 deaths registered in Dallas since 2017 and the more than 200 fatalities in all Texas. The Lone Star state is the deadliest for construction workers, followed by California.

According to an analysis made by The Dallas Morning News using Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data, beginning in the 2009 fiscal year, 55 workers have died in Dallas and more than 1,200 statewide.

Accidents documented by OSHA include falls from ladders and trees, electrocutions, crushing by cranes and heat strokes.

Most of the victims are Hispanic.

"Construction is one of the hardest and most hazardous jobs — and with very little benefits," said Jason Cato, the Dallas director of the Workers Defense Project.

"Workers have to operate at great heights and under extreme temperatures. That's why this industry has a high incidence of injuries and fatalities," Cato said.

"Many of the workers approaching our organization are undocumented immigrants and have been exploited by employers under threat of being reported to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)," he said. The Workers Defense Project helps workers to get paid, navigating the compensation system and refers cases to labor lawyers if needed.

In 2017, this organization released the "Build a Better South" report, which examines working conditions for 1,435 construction workers in six large cities of southern U.S., including Dallas.

Among its findings, the report highlights a high rate of injuries and deaths, a lack of safety training, lack of benefits like sick days and time off, and wages theft.

Another worrying indicator for industry analysts is the rampant misclassification of work contracts — many of the employees are classified as contractors so employers don't have to give them benefits. But in fact, these independent contractors work more hours than hired, full-time workers.

"Some workers don't even get hard hats, gloves or harnesses, nor the slightest training as legally required under OSHA 10," said Cato.

The 10-hour training ordered by OSHA is designed to teach construction workers and employers to identify, curb and prevent safety and health risks in the workplace.

It's a standard industry training that uses real life workplace hazard cases in the classroom, and advises how to file complaints at OSHA.

OSHA 10 is mandatory for companies seeking certification by the Labor Department. However, only 53 percent of polled workers said they received the training.

What is more worrisome, the study found that accidents are reported only 20 percent of the time, meaning OSHA's ability to fine employers for employee injuries and illnesses is largely reduced.

'A very hard job'

"Contractors don't care whether the job is safe or not, they just want it gets done quickly. If you don't hurry up, you don't get a paycheck," said Nicolás Matom, a 44-year-old Dallas resident from Guatemala who has been working in construction here for 12 years.

"Working in construction is very hard. I lost a fellow worker while digging a tunnel. And another one, who was working under 110 degrees, began throwing up and had to be hospitalized."

Matom remember these cases after the tragedy felled upon Raúl Ortega, an immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico who died on early October after a three-story house he was working on collapsed during a storm in West Dallas.

He said he himself has fallen from ladders and roofs, has worked long-hour shifts not stopping even to drink water, and was a victim of salary theft.

Five years ago, he had to undergo surgery to save his right knee ligaments because of the excess weight he used to carry when he worked building balconies and wooden fences for a company called Azul Gates, according to a lawsuit filed by the Workers Defense Project on his behalf.

Matom dried up his savings account, incurred in bank debt, and even had to borrow some money from his family in Guatemala to pay for his surgery at the Parkland Hospital, records show.

Then he spent seven months recovering through physical therapy, time during which he was unable to work or provide for his family.

"Since I couldn't get back to work, they never paid me the hours I worked and I had to sue," he said.

These days, his tasks are less heavy like installing tiles and painting houses. But he continues working long hours because he has to support his three children in the village of Santa María, department of Quiché, Guatemala, and another one born in the U.S. two years ago.

The immigrant says he will keep working "as long as my body lets me", but nowadays he is more careful about conditions at work so he can get his salary on time.

"Employers have a lot of ways of washing their hands because we get hired without documents", Matom said. "Despite that, we have rights".

Only for six months

Employers accountability encountered another stumbling block in April 2017: OSHA’s Volks rule was overturned by a Congressional Review Act signed into law by President Donald Trump.

That law voids OSHA's ability to force employers to keep records of worker injuries and illnesses for five and a half years. Now, they have to do that for only the six-month statute of limitations.

“OSHA’s power grab is not only unlawful, it does nothing to improve workplace safety,” said Republican Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabama last year when the resolution was approved. “What it does do is to force small businesses to confront even more unnecessary red tape and unjustified litigation.”

OSHA records also indicates the fines ordered to employers for each workplace death.

In the 14 Dallas cases reported since January 2017, the agency fined employers for $3,000 to $35,000, most of which were reduced to half after out-of-court settlements were reached, data show.

"Texas is one of the few states that doesn’t require employers to give compensation benefits to workers," said Cato, of the Workers Defense Project.

"Employers can get away with it if they know the kinks of the law," he concluded.

The numbers of the industry in Dallas

- Dallas has the highest number of residential construction projects in southern U.S.

- Almost 250,000 construction workers are employed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, most of whom are Latino.

- According to the American Community Survey, 89% of construction workers are immigrants of mexican origin.

- The average annual salary for a construction worker in Dallas is about $19,000.

- The average hourly wage is about $10.20.

- 86% of polled workers reported working overtime hours with their current employer.

- 39% reported getting no benefits (health insurance, life insurance, paid personal or sick days, or retirement/pension).

- 3 in 4 workers were not covered by their employers' medical insurance plan.

- 70% of workers were not offered paid time off.

- 82% of workers were not offered a pension or retirement plan.

- 30% reported wage theft, either by not getting any compensation at all or being short-changed on overtime.

- 15% have had tools, transportation, uniforms or other work-related expenses deducted from their wages.

- Average temperatures Dallas workers are exposed to exceed the national average 94 - 105 Fahrenheit.

*Source: Workers Defense Project's Build a Better South report

Want to read this piece in Spanish, click here ?

[justholdinghandsok]

David Duchovny exclusive interview by Craig Ferguson in Bucky F*cking Dent paperback. 

to add to @youokay-mulder​‘s post 

(It’s not all of it, the end of the interview isn’t available if you don’t buy the book)

Craig Ferguson : What’s it like to write a novel about men writing novels?

David Duchovny : You mean as opposed to a novel about cows writing novels? Much of the philosophy or thinking ideas standing behind or underneath this book have to do with storytelling. As is, Who is telling the story – are the telling it in a way that makes them a hero, a goat, happy, sad? The idea being that all history in a story, so the character are on a journey to discover the best, healthiest, happiest, most truthful way of telling their intermingled stories. And just coincidentally, I read a paper yesterday written by my daughter for high school that addresses this question of who controls history in Hamilton – so be on the lookout for a rap musical of Bucky F*cking Dent. It’s coming and you can’t escape it. So anyway, with all this background noise of storytelling in the book, it made sense that the two main male characters, Ted and Marty would be storytellers, novelists of sorts – frustrated, maybe, blocked, maybe; but novelists. It made sense. But the book is also about how all of us who live conscious lives, or even semi-self-conscious lives, Mariana included, have not only a right to tell the story, but something approaching a duty, a responsibility – a sacred duty, even – to make personal sense of  the lives we lead.

CF: How closely does Ted’s room in Brooklyn resemble your Childhood bedroom?

DD: Ted’s room looks nothing like mine did. I grew up in Manhattan, not Brooklyn (less space), with a brother and sister (less space still)—so I always shared a room. Didn’t go in for posters. Though for a while, we used to rip the advertising off buses back when they were cardboard—the advertising, not the buses. I remember I had a Peter Max ad on my wall that I’d pulled off a bus on Fourteenth Street. Psychedelic. The ‘70s city equivalent of big game hunting. I might’ve had a Minnesota Vikings poster too. I liked purple.

CF: You’ve said that the book’s inspiration came from overhearing a workman say “Buckyfuckingdent”, which was a new word for you because you weren’t from Boston. How much have the Yankees meant to you throughout your life? Did the original Yankee Stadium have supernatural powers?

DD: I was a big Yankee fan as a kid, but this will be hard to grasp for many: the Yankees sucked when I was a kid. I came of age right at the end of Mickey Mantle, before the great, crazy teams of the late ‘70s (one of which is in the novel), and long before the corporate behemoth Streinbrenner Yankee teams of the Jeter years. My heroes were very good players, but just shirt of the Hall of Fame – Mel Stottlemyre, Bobby Murcer. The Yankee team of my childhood never won anyting – so when I write about the way Red Sox fans felt before 2004, that’s how I felt. I grew up rooting for the losers. Even the lowly Mets won in ’69. Not my Yankees. And Mel Stottlemyre s a fantastic baseball name.

CF: Like Ted, you studied literature at an Ivy League university. Are English majors kinder, smarter, and generally better than other people? Are poets (especially Hart Crane and John Berryman) superior to fiction writers? Is Jerry Garcia superior to everyone?

DD: Yes. Yes. Yessssssss.

CF : Do you miss the 1970s version of New York City ? Why or why not?

DD: I think I miss it. It’s so long ago. It was celebrated in Patti Smith’s Just Kids, but I was really just a kid back then, so the city that I knew – broken-down, dirty, broke – was all I knew. I accepted it, didn’t want it to be better or worse, it was simply my home. And we lived on the Lower East Side, which was not a place where people were eager to live, like they are today. I would be careful of romanticizing the danger of it, but there was a sense of less structure than there is today, less hierarchy, surely less franchises. So yeah, it felt more free and it really did feel like it was wide-open and livable. Today’s New York feels more a like a New York theme park where people come to have New York-type experiences. New York is loved now in a way that perverts it, makes it an idea of New York. Back then it was just a weird, wild, slightly neglected place to be living, and that was that.

CF: When you’re a gray panther, what delusions will you want your kids to stage for you?

DD: I could always use a little rain.

CF: Illness (in children as well as parents) is a recurring thread in the novel. Do you believe the “bowling average of souls” described in chapter 18? What do you think it takes to be a survivor?

DD: I’m not sure. Everybody living has survived something. Some have a much tougher go than others. I think survival is a habit. If you’re lucky and strong, and if the tests aren’t too hard at too young age, you get good at it. It’s kind of the way sports functions for kids. Teaches them how to survive in a world where the stakes seem high but are actually zero. Or even when as adults we continue to take part in the illusion that the game means something. But it’s just a game.

CF: Marty’s career was made possible by Edward Bernays, who he says destroyed free will. Do you agree with Marty about the evils of advertising and publicity?

DD: I do agree with Marty. I think it was George Carlin who said, late in his life, that we think we have choices but we don’t, we have options. I may be misquoting Carling, but this is how I remember it.

CF: Ted and Marty have similar taste in women. Were you trying to deliver a symbolic message about the nature of love, or was this just a coincidence?

DD: That’s a coincidence. So I imagine it means more than if I’d planned it.

CF: What would your dad think of Marty Fullilove?

DD: My dad would be pretty pleased that I managed a novel. I’ve said many times, when I’ve talked about the book after its release, that Marty was nothing like my dad save for being the ace of a Puerto Rican softball team. My dad was gentle and quiet and loving. Like Marty, he was also a writer, a frustrated writer, who published his first novel at the sage of seventy-two. Which is remarkable. It’s called Coney and I recommend it.

[mrmichaelmbarnes]

LOCAL ICONIC PUBLIC GOLF COURSE ANNOUNCES FULL RECOVERY AFTER 2017 DES PLAINES RIVER FLOOD

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After One Full Season of Growth and Recovery, Crane’s Landing Golf Course Opens This April * with 50 Acres of Fresh Turf, New Public Programming, New Membership Options, and More

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (Mar. 25, 2019) – With spring on the horizon in the Midwest, Crane’s Landing Golf Course (Crane’s Landing) at the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort, is pleased to announce its official opening this April* as well as 50 acres of new turf, engaging programming and new offers for golfers, families and visitors to Chicagoland.

“Crane’s Landing Golf Course has been a staple in Chicagoland’s North Shore area since 1975. With roughly 50 acres of new turf planted in the fall of 2017 after the Des Plaines river flood, and now having had one full season to fill in, 2019 stands to be a very good year for the course,” said E.J. Bertke, director of golf and PGA Apprentice at Crane’s Landing. “And while the new turf presents a beautiful new landscape for ease of play, it’s the course’s fun and challenging layout that has kept golfers coming back for nearly 50 years,” continues Bertke.

Golf enthusiasts can anticipate the following at Crane’s Landing this season:

April* Opening: Crane’s Landing celebrates opening month with a $25 weekday rate, which includes a cart rental during the month of April. Friday, August 2: Lincolnshire Marriott Resort’s annual Children’s Miracle Network golf outing welcomes all golfers to join a foursome to enjoy a day of golf at Crane’s Landing and raise money for the children’s charity. New Membership Rates: Crane’s Landing is offering a wide array of new membership rates and structures to choose from. Some new options include a resort membership that include savings in all areas of the resort, a hole in one membership that includes a Callaway Wedge or Odyssey Putter for new members and a personalized locker, the eagle membership that includes 14 day advance reservations, twilight membership with a seven day advance reservation, and a junior golf membership for $450 per individual for those aged 17 and younger that includes green fees for the entire 2019 golf season. Golf Clinics: Golf clinics will take place throughout the season and be posted on the golf course’s website. Pro Shop and Clubhouse: The Pro shop is fully stocked with the latest golf attire for men and women, along with a vast array of the newest Callaway golf equipment. “The par three ninth hole is still as picturesque as ever running parallel with the Des Plaines River, and the tranquil ‘triangle’ that consists of holes 14, 15, and 16 is still as quiet, peaceful, and a fantastic homestretch to finishing your round of golf,” said Bertke.

Crane’s Landing is open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. More information and bookings can be made by calling E.J. Bertke at 847-478-6643 or visiting https://ift.tt/2FzoX1l.

About Crane’s Landing Golf Course (https://ift.tt/2FzoX1l)

Known as a favorite public golf course in the North Shore, Chicagoland area, Crane’s Landing Golf Course (Crane’s Landing) offers an array of challenges for both beginning and seasoned golfers alike. Boasting a par 70, 18-hole facility that plays all of 6,290 yards, the course sits upon 110 acres of preserved woodlands and is a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Crane’s Landing provides golfers with breathtaking views of undisturbed natural beauty and six holes that run along the Des Plaines River. The course offers a variety of player and event packages, in addition to annual memberships and golf outings.

* Crane’s Landing Golf Course will open April 8, weather permitting.

from Golf News Wire https://ift.tt/2FuGLcA

[mrlongkgraves]

LOCAL ICONIC PUBLIC GOLF COURSE ANNOUNCES FULL RECOVERY AFTER 2017 DES PLAINES RIVER FLOOD

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After One Full Season of Growth and Recovery, Crane’s Landing Golf Course Opens This April * with 50 Acres of Fresh Turf, New Public Programming, New Membership Options, and More

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. (Mar. 25, 2019) – With spring on the horizon in the Midwest, Crane’s Landing Golf Course (Crane’s Landing) at the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort, is pleased to announce its official opening this April* as well as 50 acres of new turf, engaging programming and new offers for golfers, families and visitors to Chicagoland.

“Crane’s Landing Golf Course has been a staple in Chicagoland’s North Shore area since 1975. With roughly 50 acres of new turf planted in the fall of 2017 after the Des Plaines river flood, and now having had one full season to fill in, 2019 stands to be a very good year for the course,” said E.J. Bertke, director of golf and PGA Apprentice at Crane’s Landing. “And while the new turf presents a beautiful new landscape for ease of play, it’s the course’s fun and challenging layout that has kept golfers coming back for nearly 50 years,” continues Bertke.

Golf enthusiasts can anticipate the following at Crane’s Landing this season:

April* Opening: Crane’s Landing celebrates opening month with a $25 weekday rate, which includes a cart rental during the month of April. Friday, August 2: Lincolnshire Marriott Resort’s annual Children’s Miracle Network golf outing welcomes all golfers to join a foursome to enjoy a day of golf at Crane’s Landing and raise money for the children’s charity. New Membership Rates: Crane’s Landing is offering a wide array of new membership rates and structures to choose from. Some new options include a resort membership that include savings in all areas of the resort, a hole in one membership that includes a Callaway Wedge or Odyssey Putter for new members and a personalized locker, the eagle membership that includes 14 day advance reservations, twilight membership with a seven day advance reservation, and a junior golf membership for $450 per individual for those aged 17 and younger that includes green fees for the entire 2019 golf season. Golf Clinics: Golf clinics will take place throughout the season and be posted on the golf course’s website. Pro Shop and Clubhouse: The Pro shop is fully stocked with the latest golf attire for men and women, along with a vast array of the newest Callaway golf equipment. “The par three ninth hole is still as picturesque as ever running parallel with the Des Plaines River, and the tranquil ‘triangle’ that consists of holes 14, 15, and 16 is still as quiet, peaceful, and a fantastic homestretch to finishing your round of golf,” said Bertke.

Crane’s Landing is open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. More information and bookings can be made by calling E.J. Bertke at 847-478-6643 or visiting https://ift.tt/2FzoX1l.

About Crane’s Landing Golf Course (https://ift.tt/2FzoX1l)

Known as a favorite public golf course in the North Shore, Chicagoland area, Crane’s Landing Golf Course (Crane’s Landing) offers an array of challenges for both beginning and seasoned golfers alike. Boasting a par 70, 18-hole facility that plays all of 6,290 yards, the course sits upon 110 acres of preserved woodlands and is a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Crane’s Landing provides golfers with breathtaking views of undisturbed natural beauty and six holes that run along the Des Plaines River. The course offers a variety of player and event packages, in addition to annual memberships and golf outings.

* Crane’s Landing Golf Course will open April 8, weather permitting.

from Golf News Wire https://ift.tt/2FuGLcA

[anneedmonsonus]

Before the Fire: Paganin House by Iwan Iwanoff

I originally published this post on the old format of House Nerd here.

Iwanoff fans rejoice.  Iconic Paganin House has been saved! After this famous Iwanoff home in Floreat was gutted days before Christmas 2015 by a house fire, it has now been brought back to life by the careful work of its owners and a team of dedicated tradespeople. And Restoration Australia has followed its journey! (I have fond memories of discovering and binge watching this awesome show in those hazy newborn days). If you’re a fan of Iwanoff, make sure you tune in tonight (Sunday 17th March) to ABC1 and ABC iView at 7.40pm. I think it’s wonderful that the owners have put so much of their money, time and energy into piecing this house back together – keeping Iwanoff’s legacy, and an iconic, much-loved Perth home – around for generations to come.

In the meantime, if you’d like to see some pics of this beautiful mid-century home, I wrote this story below after I visited Paganin House in 2013, back when former owner Lisa Fini had just put it on the market.

If you’ve spent much time in Perth at the beaches near Floreat and City Beach, chances are you’ll have driven past this place – Paganin House, this iconic 1960s house on The Boulevard.

The house was designed by renowned Bulgarian-born architect Iwan Iwanoff, who designed what many people in Perth believe to be the coolest houses in Perth (his famous Marsala House in Dianella still has a light-up disco floor!) Iwanoff died in 1986 of pneumonia, but his name crops up time and time again in unofficial listings of Perth’s best houses and Perth’s best architects, and it will continue to do so, because decades on his houses still draw oohs and ahhs. This place is one.

ABOVE: An Iwanoff house and an Instagram filter and you could almost swear this pic was taken in 1965! Paganin House today in 2013.

MARBLE GALORE: The front veranda. The home’s original owners were marble and timber merchants and the home is extensively finished in marble – even around the sides of the house, and to the internal staircase that leads to the undercroft garage. The paving around the pool is marble and so is the floor of the pool house. Photo by Acorn Photo.

NEUTRAL WALLS: When she renovated Lisa kept the wall colours predominantly neutral, letting the home’s extensive timber features and colourful accents do the talking. The new kitchen now has white Laminate cabinets with timber edging and some solid timber feature cabinets. “The previous owners had done a renovation in the 80s and put in a pink granite kitchen but I stripped it back to what it was,” she says.

ABOVE LEFT: The orange glass pendant lights above the bar are original. Lisa used to own a lighting company and the house has wonderful feature lighting, with much of it on dimmers. ABOVE RIGHT: The dining area is all original – even the ceiling with concealed lighting beyond the panels.

ABOVE: The main suite. Although two of the bedrooms are at the front of the home, Iwanoff designed them so that their floor level lies beneath the balcony. This feature, teamed with the marble privacy panels and the gentle slope of the land, ensures that no-one from the street can see into the bedrooms. There’s a reason this architect is so respected! Photo by Acorn Photo.

SUMMER EVENINGS BY THE POOL: Lisa says the spot by the pool is her favourite part of the home. “I just spent six months in the UK and all I wanted to do when I got back was sit there and look out at the pool,” she says. “When I left London it was -3 degrees, when I got back to Perth it was six o’clock and it was 35 degrees. I sat out there by the pool with a glass of champagne. I love to have family and friends over.”

LET’S GO OUTSIDE: The pool area is my favourite part of this place. It cries out for pool parties and for everyone to dance to Twisting By The Pool. GAME OF POOL BY THE POOL? The pool house has a bar (hidden behind that silver curved cupboard) which is flanked by marble cladding. The pool house also has its own marble-finished change room with toilet and shower.

ABOVE: You know you have a party house when your house has three bars. Paganin House has one bar in the living area, one in the pool house and this one by the pool. Kind of has a Spanish feel don’t you think?

Since I was a kid I’ve always kept an eye out for this house as I drove down The Boulevard. Opposite the beautiful golf course, set far back from the street, it’s arresting. When you catch sight of it, tucked between trees, you can almost imagine you are in another era or place like the 60s in Beverly Hills, with the huge palm trees that edge The Boulevard shading the road. It’s that kind of house that makes you wonder who lives there.

Born in 1919, Iwanoff migrated to Perth in the 50s but it wasn’t until the 60s that he started his own practice here and Perth is lucky enough to be THE city of his work. His architecture is now recognised internationally and he is regarded as one of our city’s best and most influential architects for his expressionistic style and his striking Brutalist buildings.

Iwanoff houses have so many fans in Perth that I find it interesting that Marsala House in Dianella is the only one of Iwanoff’s houses that are on the heritage register. We haven’t really come to the point yet where we are putting 60s and 70s Perth houses on the heritage register yet (Marsala was built in 1976 and is the youngest house to be heritage-listed in WA) and it’s a shame, especially when there are so many Iwanoff fans who would kill for one of his homes.

ABOVE: Iwanoff’s heritage-listed, recently restored iconic Marsala House. It reminds me a bit of the Nome King scene in Return to Oz.

Paganin House owner Lisa Fini tells me an Iwanoff in City Beach was knocked down recently, to the horror of many Iwanoff fans. So I guess you just hope that Iwanoffs go to people who appreciate them.

Lisa is one of them. She bought Paganin House in 1999 after years of lusting after it (and she doesn’t dress like Nancy Sinatra). “I’d always loved this house,” she smiles. “When I was a little girl we used to drive past it all the time.” It’s not just her who has a soft spot for this place. “It seems like everyone who speaks to me says, ‘Ohhh! It’s my favourite house in Perth!’” she laughs.

ABOVE: The original front entry door opens onto a foyer. Straight ahead is the kitchen, which can be closed up with a pair of marble inlay doors. To the left of the kitchen is a small sitting area and the home’s four bedrooms. To the right is the dining area, the study and the sunken lounge with bar.

DINE WITH ME: To the right of the kitchen is the dining with slatted walls and beyond that the sunken lounge that overlooks the 10m pool with diving board and the garden.

LUXE: The marble-tiled ensuite to the main bedroom. Photo by Acorn Photo.

ABOVE: The study at the front of the home has an original curved marble top table.

THIS IS GOING STRAIGHT TO THE POOL ROOM: The freestanding pool house overlooks the pool with diving board.

ABOVE: My favourite things about this house are the gorgeous elevation with the marble panels and the frangipani trees. And the outdoor entertaining area, with the 10m pool with diving board and pool house. The whole place kind of makes me think of an edgier version of the Brady Bunch house. (I don’t think the Brady Bunch had three bars).

ABOVE: The pool house Iwanoff designed has huge floor-to-ceiling sliding doors – something we are seeing a lot in new houses these days, but back in the 60s it would have been rare!

ABOVE: The marble surround fireplace in the pool room. ABOVE RIGHT: There is something about this garden and its location that reminds me of Breaking Bad.

ABOVE: By the side of the house, jarrah panels can be lifted to allow for cross-ventilation. Iwanoff incorporated numerous solar passive principles into the house.

RENOVATE AND REPLACE: Right in the centre of the house, the kitchen is the axis of this home. When Lisa bought the house it was a bit rundown. She began a restoration with the aim of keeping as many new materials as close as possible to the same materials that were originally used in the 60s – for example, she replaced the battered kitchen with 60s-inspired cabinets in laminate, not Laminex. Photo by Acorn Photo.

TURQUOISE SPLASH: Lisa had friends express disbelief over her choice of a turquoise glass splashback, but I think it works perfectly here – and the colour is picked up in the original turquoise glass panels of the bar in the living area. Photo by Acorn Photo.

ABOVE: The house’s original marble and timber merchant owners definitely went to town with the marble in their own home. Marble was used around the pool, to the laundry drying courtyard and even to the internal staircase to the garage.

Paganin House has only changed hands once – Iwanoff designed it for its first owners, a family with four children, who moved into the house in 1965 and only moved out in 1999. The house was well ahead of its time, built in an age when open-plan living was still rare. It also has features that many houses didn’t have back then – such as internal entry to the double garage, full-height sliding doors to the pool house, numerous bars (the house has three!) It’s now going to auction.

Lisa says one of the great things of the design is that from the street, despite the extensive glazing to the elevation, there is a sense of privacy as passers-by cannot tell what’s going on inside. Even at night, when the house is lit up, the elevated block combined with Iwanoff’s combination of clever angles, marble privacy panels and a floor plan that utilises an undercroft garage means people from the street can’t see what the people inside are doing.

“It’s open, but you don’t feel like you’re on display,” says Lisa. So that means when certain people drive slowly past, craning their necks trying to get a peek inside *coughs* they pretty much can’t see a thing inside.

Yep, Iwanoff was a pretty smart dude. “He was such a clever architect,” says Lisa. “The design is just incredible.” Maya x

The post Before the Fire: Paganin House by Iwan Iwanoff appeared first on House Nerd.

from Home Improvement https://house-nerd.com/2019/03/17/iwanoff-paganin-house/

[csrgood]

The Disney Conservation Fund Awards 2018 Conservation Grants

The Disney Conservation Fund (DCF) is providing grants totaling more than $8 million to support the work of 80 nonprofit organizations this year, The Walt Disney Company announced today.  The grants are part of Disney’s “Reverse the Decline” initiative, which pairs the company’s philanthropic dollars with professional expertise from Disney’s Animals, Science, and Environment team and other employees to maximize the impact of conservation efforts to protect wildlife and wild places.  Including these new grants, DCF has awarded more than $70 million to date to support conservation efforts around the world.

DCF actively supports the world’s leading conservation organizations with funds and professional resources to save wildlife and habitats, inspire action, and protect the planet.  This commitment is reflected through the fund’s comprehensive focus on stabilizing and increasing the populations of 10 different at-risk species including apes, butterflies, coral reefs, cranes, elephants, monkeys, rhinos, sea turtles, sharks and rays, and tigers.  DCF also provides grants to support conservation programs that engage communities in comprehensive solutions that serve people, wildlife and habitats.

 “Each program we support through the Disney Conservation Fund is an inspiring example of the power of people to make a difference around the world, an important reminder for each of us as we celebrate Earth Month,” said Elissa Margolis, senior vice president, Corporate Social Responsibility, The Walt Disney Company.  

Since 1995, the DCF has:

Helped to conserve more than 400 species around the world.

Supported more than 2,000 conservation projects, helping more than 600 nonprofit organizations working hand-in-hand with communities to protect wildlife worldwide.

Recognized 150 Disney Conservation Heroes for their efforts to protect wildlife living alongside their communities in 47 countries.

The majority of funding for these grants is provided by The Walt Disney Company and supplemented by guest contributions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park and select Walt Disney World Resort locations.

Some of the programs receiving grants this year include:

California Condor Nest Guarding Program- Santa Barbara Zoological Foundation: In 1986 only nine condors remained in the wild. Santa Barbara Zoo and partners are working to increase California condor populations through captive breeding, careful management, education programs with local communities and research to encourage self-sustaining populations through the California Condor Nest Guarding Program.

Conserving Rhinos through Community Engagement- Save the Rhino International: Black rhinos were declared extinct in Zambia in 1998, but after successful law enforcement and conservation collaboration, 25 rhinos were reintroduced to Zambia's North Luangwa National Park between 2003 and 2010. Save the Rhino International is protecting this population of black rhinos by providing teacher training workshops, supporting school curriculums focused on wildlife conservation and implementing community events and park visits that allow children and adults to connect with nature.

Conserving the Cao Vit Gibbon- Fauna & Flora International: The critically endangered Cao Vit gibbon, also known as the eastern black-crested gibbon, is threatened by loss of habitat from cattle grazing and illegal logging.  Fauna & Flora International is protecting the last population of these gibbons in northern Vietnam by strengthening community conservation teams to help government rangers in forest protection, wildlife monitoring and enforcement activities, by providing environmental education at local schools and supporting sustainable livelihoods.

Rewilding Australia with Tasmanian Devils- Global Wildlife Conservation: Non-native species threaten the survival of many native Australian wildlife species and as a result, impact ecosystems and human livelihoods. Global Wildlife Conservation is working to reverse the decline of the Tasmanian devil on the Australian mainland and re-establish it as an apex predator, while raising public awareness about challenges faced by Australia's wildlife.

Seagrass Surveys for Education and Conservation- Marine Resources Development Foundation: Seagrass beds are diminishing worldwide but serve a critical role in coastal ecosystems by stabilizing sediments and providing food and habitat for marine wildlife. The Marine Resources Development Foundation is leading seagrass surveys in the Florida Keys to monitor and understand ecosystem health, and engaging students and teachers from around the country in hands-on field work, data analysis, and classroom curriculum to raise awareness about seagrass habitat conservation.

For a complete list of the most recent DCF grant recipients, visit www.disney.com/conservation.

###

Disney is committed to conservation and caring for the planet– ensuring a world where wildlife thrives and nature is treasured and protected. For more than 60 years, animals have been a part of Disney storytelling, and these stories continue today alongside immersive experiences that connect kids and families around the world with the magic of nature. Since 1995, the Disney Conservation Fund has inspired millions of people to take action to protect the planet and directed more than $70 million to reverse the decline of wildlife in more than half the countries in the world through efforts that engage communities in conservation.

source: http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/40961-The-Disney-Conservation-Fund-Awards-2018-Conservation-Grants?tracking_source=rss

[aloeverawrites]