Moomin Light: Linkfest: July 14, 2008

Throwing myself into things

Blooming Now - July

Last week was one of the most hectic weeks this year. This week will be close, and we're all starting out tired from last week. Other people have more energy to blog, however. Here are some interesting and/or fun things I've found recently [and a totally irrelevant photo of a bee]:

Peter David's highly amusing story of his proposal to his wife.

Iceland Rocks: Or, How Is Eating Whale Like Voting for President? at Freakonomics: An interesting article with fascinating photos:

...Iceland has become a top tourist destination for whale watching! The irony is quite strong because in Reykjavik harbor, the whale watching boats use the same dock as the whaling boats. On the right side of the dock were the whale watching boats with big signs. On the left were four rather sinister-looking black boats. If Kjartan had not pointed them out, I wouldn’t have known — that was the (entire!) Icelandic whaling fleet...

If Bloggers Wrote Song Titles at Christine Kane's Blog: For instance:

"Five Irrefutable Reasons Jude Should Listen to Me" ("Hey, Jude")
"Give Me Three Minutes and I'll Give You Indisputable Proof that I was Happier 24 Hours Ago" ("Yesterday")
"The Most Shocking Place to Discover the Solutions to All Your Problems!" ("Blowin' in the Wind")
or "41 Can't-Miss Ways to Improve Your Stalking Skills" ("Every Breath You Take")

(she also links to the Rolling Stone 500 greatest songs of all time (if you've got the free time!))
[Totally irrelevant photo of bluets at the Pigeon River (from our May mountain trip)]

Etiquette maven misfire: Breastmilk is "seriously inappropriate" at Hoyden About Town: A Boston Globe advice columnist on an office worker's dilemma - what to do when you reach for your lunch yogurt to find a "toxic substance" in the fridge:

Should we all be exposed to her daily output of breast milk every time we venture to the fridge?

The Globe columnist agreed with the office worker. I agreed with Hoyden, who said:

You know, if the worst thing that’s happening in your life is that you caught a glimpse of someone else’s breastmilk in the work fridge last week, maybe you should thank your lucky stars and go do something useful in the world with all that spare energy.

I'll admit, when I was working part-time after older son was born, I would never have kept expressed milk in the fridge. The condition in which some people left the coffee area?! There was no way I'd let them get their grubby paws anywhere near my baby's meal!

Billy Joel is doing two concerts at the soon-to-be-demolished Shea Stadium. The New York Times has an interesting article, Just the Way He Is:

...If you’re tired of hearing “Just the Way You Are,” well, he’s tired of playing it. (“It’s a wedding song,” he says. “I also feel hypocritical. I divorced the woman I wrote it for.”) If you wince when you hear “Honesty,” well, so does he, on the inside. (“You hypocrite,” he says he thinks to himself. “Since when are you Mr. Sincerity?”)

And if he doesn’t sing “Uptown Girl,” he mimics what you’re thinking with a slight rise in his voice: “He’s probably mad at Christie.” In fact it has nothing to do with Christie Brinkley, his second ex-wife, but with the lost ability to hit the very high notes with consistency.

He may be one of the most successful performers in the world, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an extraordinarily gifted musician who can move from rock to ballad to soulful doo-wop, who can capture with a few spare words the dreams and disappointments of clerks and secretaries rocking their lives away on the Long Island Rail Road...