So glad someone found this little fellow

Sage advice

How to Have Cats Without Being a Cat Lady

If you’re a middle-aged single woman who happens to own a cat (or even a few cats), you don’t have to be pigeonholed into the old “cat lady” adage. With an increasing number of women choosing to live in single households, having a cat provides the same benefits of pet ownership but without the more dependent entanglements associated with having a dog or other high commitment companion animal. Although the “cat lady” stereotype prevails, you can still have a cat and not be a cat lady.

Listening to:

Good night.

Nice rendition of a song I love

Teaching my first class

went really well tonight. We've got a great bunch of people. Here's to a wonderful summer of learning!

I am so sorry to hear this

Jean Ritchie, Who Revived Appalachian Folk Songs, Dies at 92

Jean Ritchie, who brought hundreds of traditional songs from her native Appalachia to a wide audience — singing of faith and unfaithfulness, murder and revenge, love unrequited and love lost — and in the process helped ignite the folk song revival of the mid-20th century, died on Monday at her home in Berea, Ky. She was 92.

Jean Ritchie, 1922 - 2015

"I see folk music as a river that never stopped flowing," she told The New York Times in 1980. "Sometimes a few people go to it and sometimes a lot of people do. But it's always there."

Here she is playing one of my favourite folk songs:



This is lovely:



Finally, one she wrote herself, about mountaintop removal, a controversial practice here in Kentucky:

I wish today had been sunnier and warmer

I know we do need the rain, but I'd hoped to go back into the pool today, but I don't think it even made it into the sixties in terms of temperature, and it rained most of the day and even now is very cloudy and could spit rain at any moment. Welcome to June, after several days of 80s in May. :)

Hmmm....an insider-turned-outsider's perspective on the Duggar abuse case

I could’ve been a Duggar wife: I grew up in the same church, and the abuse scandal doesn’t shock me

Unlike most of the writers covering the Duggar sex scandal, I was raised in Advanced Training Institute (ATI), the fundamentalist Christian organization with which the family is affiliated. Joshua Duggar’s confession of sexually molesting young girls in his family’s home when he was a teenager didn’t surprise me, nor should it surprise anyone with any intimate knowledge about this organization, because ATI’s theological beliefs and practices cultivate an environment where women and children are more vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse. Ironically, the same theological beliefs and practices at the heart of this scandal are the same beliefs that created the Duggars as a media phenomenon, and drew viewers and fans to their TLC show “19 Kids and Counting.”

Personally, I don't get the appeal that the Duggars had for viewers. Having that many children, in my opinion, in a world that has birth control and where people know how to use it, seems insane, irresponsible, and environmentally disastrous. I think people like the concept of good, wholesome people who are God-fearing and the such. But I think that's just a concept, an ideal, in this case. I don't have an issue with most people's beliefs, so long as there is no one being harmed by those beliefs, but if there is harm, then it really has to be examined and made right. And while I'm not against homeschooling, by any means, I think there are people out there who quite frankly don't know how to teach, don't know the subjects themselves, and don't bother to teach children with the rigour they should.

I hope that viewers get a clue and stop supporting these type of shows. Reality TV in and of itself is not really true entertainment, and quite frankly is deplorable. It's fake, but claims to be real. It amazes me that there are people out there who are famous and fabulously rich because they starred in a reality show. Come on, Hollywood, use some creativity--give us stories that matter, yet are riveting, and not in a train-wreck sort of way. And people need to hear about the darker side of these religious groups, whether it be ATI, or Scientology, or Child of God, or any of a number of movements that hold sway over their members down to their very thoughts.

What I find most deplorable of all about this situation is that while some amount of concern was shown for helping the teen who was the perpetrator in these sex abuses--however weak--no attempt at all seems to have been made to help the girls who were abused. And that, in my opinion, is not just wrong, un-Christian, and so sad, but is monstrous. But then, apparently female lives don't matter, and male ones do, in the Duggar world. If that's true, then it is a horrible place, and it should be shunned rather than broadcast to the masses as entertainment, for it could be damaging to other young girls in terms of its supposedly wholesome message.

I have never trusted those drying cages

and I could not imagine putting a dog inside and just leaving it. I have used them for incredibly fluffy dogs when I've taken the dogs to the dog wash at a local store, but always for a very short time, checking the temperature often, and under my supervision. There was definitely some sort of disconnect here. They basically baked this poor dog to death.

Dog dies after forgotten inside Petco’s drying cage during routine grooming: owner

After not hearing from the Richmond-area facility several hours after dropping Colby off, Marks said she called the location and was asked to meet them at an area animal hospital. There she found Colby, dead.

An assistant manager for the Chesterfield County Petco allegedly told her that the groomer left to attend a graduation ceremony after placing the dog inside of the heater.

"This is her exact words: Your groomer had to go because she had a graduation to go to," Marks told WTVR.

The heating machine was supposed to turn off at 15 minutes. More than an hour after the dog died, however, his body's temperature was still at 105 degrees, Marks said.

The vet said the dog appeared to have died from a heat stroke.

Our cafeteria really outdid themselves today

For $3.59 you could get a grilled salmon salad with a dressing that is basically a Ranch-raspberry vinaigrette, and it was very tasty. I also had a pepper stuffed with cheese, mushrooms, and carrots. When I went to leave this afternoon, I picked up another salad to take home for dinner. The salmon was a good size, and it was very tasty. The head of the department had seen it at a food show she attended recently. :)