Shipwrecked & Comatose

The New York Botanical Gardens is a special place. It is a nature-filled retreat from the crowds and stink of New York City.  It has beautifully landscaped gardens, peaceful woodland trails, and a conservatory showcasing the best of all global ecosystems.  It is one of the city's crowning achievements. I almost never go there.   It's not that I don't want to go there, but I rarely have a reason to do so.  Why should I drive to the Bronx, pay for parking, and then pay admission to see nature and gardens when I live in the suburbs and have easy access to natural wonders for free (or at least much cheaper)? I think the people who run NYBG know suburbanites (who aren't serious gardeners or botany nerds) don't have much reason to visit, so they need to come up with events to lure visitors to the big city for something new and different.  They have done a splendid job over the years. During the December holidays, they present the annual Holiday Train show.  ...

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know last year I came to the conclusion that I was tired of trying to pigeonhole my eating habits and restricting my food.  Why was I even doing that?  Was I chasing some kind of body ideal that wasn't attainable without making myself miserable?  My diet and lifestyle are healthy, even if they aren't perfect, and even if I'm not as lean and tight as I would like to be.   I decided to keep on doing what it takes to look and feel my personal best without forcing myself to stick to some kind of rigid rules.   I eat my fruits and vegetables.  I cook most of my own meals from fresh ingredients (primarily sourced locally from farmers).  I exercise daily within the limits of my various joint and spine issues.  I take good care of my skin.  I dress intentionally.  If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you also know I was cast as a stripper in the Harrison Players' recent pro...

In December 2019, I had the opportunity to audition for the Harrison Players production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert .  I decided not to audition.  I had finished the Bedford Community Theater’s production of The Addams Family a month earlier, and I didn’t have the energy to audition for another musical.  Besides, I didn’t see myself in Priscilla .  It didn’t seem like a good fit for me.  It seemed like a show for younger actors.  I also wasn’t sure if my voice and general vocal repertoire was a good match for the music in the play.   There are other theater groups in the area.  I was sure I could find something to audition for in the spring (although auditioning outside of Harrison has brought more failures than successes in recent years). Well, we all know what happened in the spring of 2020.    Theater was out of the question for everyone.  I missed it.    I missed performing. Some people get into performing b...

Can one watch TV without cable, satellite, or streaming anymore?  Is it possible to watch TV over the airwaves?  Do TV stations still broadcast?  Can I stick an antenna on my TV or my roof and watch channels 2-13?  Are the TV sets you buy today even capable of doing this? Kia is my favorite car brand.  Do you know why?  It's because their commercials show a compact sedan driving up Pike's Peak.  That's right.  A car company is telling the public one does not need a giant, emissions-belching, gas guzzler to go out and have an adventure.  Thank you Kia for doing your part to save this planet.  How to be dumb:  This scenario happens to me way too often.  I want to be eco friendly and cut as much single-use plastic from my home, so I buy my laundry detergent in tablet form.  When I do my laundry, I stick the tablets and my laundry card in my pocket and take it all to the laundry room.  I start the washer and head back to ...

Guessing the Wordle in three or fewer tries is truly a thing of beauty. Do today's Goths identify more with Visigoths or Ostrogoths? As I try to cut back my Facebook use, I turn to other timesucks.  Now it seems  I am becoming a Pinterest addict. (I know Pinterest is out of fashion.  I have a LiveJournal account too).  I  think it’s safe to say I have Pinned more recipes (especially dessert recipes) than I will ever make in my lifetime. Yoga is the perfect form of exercise.  It’s the only workout I can do where I can do nothing at all and yet still say I am exercising.  Lie motionless on the floor? I'm exercising.  It's called the corpse pose. Last year I was impressed with the quality of  movies coming out of Hollywood.  I was looking forward to seeing some more actual good movies this year.  What happened Hollywood?  This year I had to suffer through so many long rambling dull movies that all too often came to thoroughly uns...

You're bored.  You're looking for something new to do. You notice a local theater group is posting auditions for its latest production.   Maybe you did some plays in high school or college, or sang in your school or church choir. You think community theater is something you can do.  You decide to go for it. Community theater is fun and rewarding, but it may not be everything you expect.  I want to provide you with some tips and some reality checks about auditioning and rehearsing as well as the culture of community theater. Understand what you are getting into before you stand in front of the table.  You want to walk into that audition as prepared as you can possibly be, not only for the audition, but for everything that comes in the weeks that follow. Competition is stiffer than you think You saw Waiting for Guffman , and you assume all the stereotypes about community theater are true.  Community theater is made up of a plucky band of amateurs with li...

By now the entire internet knows about the craze that’s sweeping the nation, Wordle.  I began my own Wordle obsession after hearing about it on Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me a few weeks ago.  It’s an addictive game for sure.  It was a brilliant move on the part of the creator to provide only one word daily.  It keeps us all wanting more.  Everyone has a strategy for playing.   There are articles on how to beat Wordle all over the internet.   Some of them seem a bit too complicated for my taste.   It takes the fun out of the game.   I believe in being strategic, but I am not going to start creating my own algorithms.   I do have my own strategy though.   I think it’s interesting to see how people play and what everyone does to come up with the right word.   I thought it would be fun to share my strategy and see how it compares. My strategy works too.   I have never not guessed the word. (I may be jinxing myself by saying ...