An Announcement . . .

The last post I wrote was over a week or two ago, right?  To my shock and horror, I found that someone had left a comment on it recently, which means people are still actually reading this blog.  Augh.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I LOVE that people are still reading this blog.  The problem is — if people read it, then the pressure to write the thing is all the greater.  And with three kids under the age of six in my house, that becomes a problem.  I have, maybe, twenty minutes a day in which to spend online.  Maybe.  Things aren’t helped by the fact that the seven-month-old has taken it into his little head to stop sleeping in the wee sma’s.  Blogging takes a backseat pretty quickly whenever there’s an opportunity to grab a nap.

So: the Big Announcement is that I’m only going to be posting on weekends anymore.  (Heh.  I made that decision a week ago, and didn’t have the chance to post about it then.)  Which, as I figure, is about as frequently as people look in on this blog, anyway.

Come back in a week, and I’ll have some Sparkly New Content for you all.

Cheers!

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AUGH!

Bad news: the childhood home of Sarah Josepha Hale was burnt down by a pair of idiots over the weekend. Because some people apparently have a thing against lil’ lambies and Thanksgiving.

Sarah Josepha Hale is best known as the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” — one of the few well-known nursery rhymes that have a traceable author — but she was also one of those 19th-century Superwomen who still consistently put me In Awe.

• She was the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book — THE women’s magazine of 19th-century America — for forty years. (Imagine taking Vogue, Good Housekeeping and Popular Mechanics and rolling them into one publication. And then making it the only periodical available to most women of the rural U.S.)
• She spent DECADES involved in a letter-writing/lobbying campaign to get Thanksgiving declared a national holiday.
• AND . . . she had five children. Five!

There’s also a little something about the creation of the Bunker Hill Monument being attributed to her, but whatever. Superwoman.

I confess, when I first learned about her life in my children’s lit. history course in library school, Hale immediately became one of my personal historical role-models. She gave us a song that all children can satirize on the playground with glee (“. . . and then she had a little more”) AND made it acceptable to have an entire holiday which revolves around gorging and sleeping.

For further reading: Check out Laurie Halse Anderson’s Thank You, Sarah: the Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving from your local library and give it a whirl. The nutty illustration of the sad football player is worth the price of admission alone.

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Set Coveting Sensors on “Stun”

Ooooooh. It’s only February, and I already know what I want for Christmas:

“Yeah,” you may say. “I’ve seen tabletop theaters before.” Take a closer gander:

Those are tiny little marionettes! With spiffy little 3D pop-up scenery! You can do your own rendition of the “Lonely Herdsman” from The Sound of Music! Also:

It does shadow puppets, too. A feature after my own heart. Pretty, although a bit pricey.

Learn more here. Thanks to Planet Esme for the info.

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Vaguely Kitlit-Oriented, ah, Stuff

Here’s what’s great about today: I found out from Educating Alice that dwarves in Sweden have been hiding inside of suitcases in order to steal from tourists.  Eoin Colfer’s referenced as a . . . what?  An authority on fictional criminal dwarves?  The hey?

Also, I discovered that there is such a thing in the world as Gummi Lights:

Thanks to Children’s Illustration for that.

But here’s what’s bad about today: I discovered the horrid collection of recipes that the Girl Scouts of America created to use with their cookies.  You know, I’ve no problems with such things as the Thin Mint Brownies or the Tagalongs Shake (although why anyone would want to consume Thin Mints in any fashion other than scarfing them from the box as fast as possible eludes me).  But “Do-Si-Do Peanut Thai Chicken” and “Samoas Sweet Potatoes” — that’s where I draw the line.

Actually, I drew the line way, way behind the sweet potatoes.  Shudder.

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