Here in MD, our governor has just announced that starting Saturday– just 3 days from now– all of us now need to have masks on when in retail establishments and on public transit. This was announced 4 hours ago. And now commences the mad scramble for folks to get their mask on. I’ve posted a couple sets of easy instructions for DIY masks to this … Continue reading Get your mask on
Yesterday I discovered a super-nifty way to make facemasks without a sewing machine. All you need is a T shirt and a pair of scissors, and in just a few minutes (maybe even less than 3!) you can have a protective mask for you and a loved one. This technique is absolutely brilliant! I’ve been cutting up the bottom parts of T-shirts to make T-shirt … Continue reading #Masks4all
Look at all these masks folks made–many by beginning sewists! If you are wondering if you can do this, the answer is: yes, yes you can! Now that the CDC is recommending that everyone wear masks after all as a common-sense way to prevent the spread of infection, why not get your mamma’s old machine out and give this a try? Here’s the pattern–easily made … Continue reading Made with love
I never thought we’d be reliving the days of knitting stockings for soldiers on the frontlines and digging victory gardens to make up for food shortages. But through a combination of federal foolhardiness, individual hoarding behaviors, and production slowdowns in China due to their own struggles with COVID-19, here we are. I’ve been seeing patterns for DIY masks intended to protect oneself from the coronavirus, … Continue reading Upcycled pandemic mask for the end times
It’s been over three years since I last posted to this blog. I started it to document a year on sabbatical, hoping to demystify the academic life for non-academics (and also to show my mom, and my mother-in-law for that matter, that being on sabbatical is NOT the same thing as being on vacation). During that time I wrote part of a book (which has … Continue reading Starting this thing all over again . . .
Yesterday morning, I was out walking the dog when I ran into one of my neighbors. He told me that his wife, a research physician at Johns Hopkins, had just scored a $57 million grant. I was thrilled and amazed by this news. Later in the day, I was brought to tears by a woman from McElderry Park, a neighborhood on the east side of Baltimore, … Continue reading Show me the money
Cocktails! I went to the Library of Congress this week to look at newspapers on microfilm. Amid the blur of tiny type, I ran across this little gem: Now you’ll know what to drink if you’re summering in Manhattan or Manhattanville, Newport or Saratoga. Or if you happen to be attending a political convention. It looks like the “Mugwumps by way of drinks” have long outlasted … Continue reading A cooler, a rickey, a cure for what ails you
Matt said he was trying to help me jumpstart my summer writing when he packed me off for a few days to our cabin in WV for a 3-day writing retreat. I think he was really just sick of being surrounded by all my books and needed a break from them—and from me wanting to talk about them. Out here on my own, I can make as big … Continue reading A writing retreat
I cannot help but use this post to brag on my students. I posted earlier in the year about the “Journal of Zen” assignment I’d given my first-year students this semester, and they SO delivered. The culmination of the semester was that they had to create a book to hold and express their understanding of “zen” in their own lives– what brought them peace, revelation, happiness. We … Continue reading Their Books of Zen
Just this week, I discovered a new review of my first book. The book was published in 2002; the review was published in 2005—appearing in a journal I’ve never heard of before (Women: A Cultural Review)— and written by someone I don’t know, one Sarah Meer. The review was very nice (thank you, Sarah!), and I can now add it to the stack of two (2) others I know to … Continue reading This just in!
