sour tastes

This cracks me up to no end...
a visual representation of how I feel about most Mondays.



via {cup of jo}

opposites

So so so true!

Both gluttony and hunger get old quickly.

via {indexed}

bees and hexagons

I have a soft spot for honey, bees, hexagons, the process of pollinating flowers,
and the symbiosis it all represents.
One of my favorite collections in my little castle is my treasury of honey from around the world,
honey pollinated by rapeseed from Germany, honey pollinated by rosemary from Portugal,
honey pollinated by rhododendron from Philadelphia, honey pollinated by lavender from Texas,
honey pollinated by acacia from Italy... they have become my own style of souvenirs.

In another life, I would live in an old treehouse with my own apiary, a la Honig Peter.

What Is It About Bees And Hexagons?

Solved! A bee-buzzing, honey-licking 2,000-year-old mystery that begins here, with this beehive. Look at the honeycomb in the photo and ask yourself: (I know you've been wondering this all your life, but have been too shy to ask out loud ... ) Why is every cell in this honeycomb a hexagon?


Bees, after all, could build honeycombs from rectangles or squares or triangles ...



But for some reason, bees choose hexagons. Always hexagons.



And not just your basic six-sided hexagon. They like "perfect" hexagons, meaning all six sides are of equal length. They go for the jewelers' version — precise, just so. Why?

Texas German

I had no idea this actually existed, and it made me laugh more every time I listened: "Weimar, Texas"
mainly because the Texas twang and Hochdeutsch are such a contradiction in terms,
and so representative of my own heritage.
But it sounds like it is an actual historical phenomenon.
Who knew??

The first German settlers arrived in Texas over 150 years ago and successfully passed on their native language throughout the generations - until now.

German was the main language used in schools, churches and businesses around the hill country between Austin and San Antonio. But two world wars and the resulting drop in the standing of German meant that the fifth and sixth generation of immigrants did not pass it on to their children.

Still the biggest ancestry group in the US, according to Census data, a large majority of German-Americans never learned the language of their ancestors.

Hans Boas, a linguistic and German professor at the University of Texas, has made it his mission to record as many speakers of German in the Lone Star State as he can before the last generation of Texas Germans passes away.

Mr Boas has recorded 800 hours of interviews with over 400 German descendants in Texas and archived them at the Texas German Dialect Project. He says the dialect, created from various regional German origins and a mix of English, is one of a kind.

"We have found no two speakers that speak roughly alike," Mr Boas told the BBC at his office in Austin.

The BBC's Franz Strasser went to Weimar, New Braunfels and Austin to find the last speakers of this dialect.

via {bbc news}

a murky area not definable by looks

Considering that I am pursuing a career in Academia,
I thought it was ok to share something that made me chuckle,
not the least of which was an all-too familiar hoodie from one of my quasi alma maters:
The online quiz: prof or hobo













via {prof or hobo}

string in motion turning music inside out

This fascinated me completely, especially as a string player,
despite looking dangerously similar the old Mac screen savers and iTunes visualizers
Imagine what these string vibrations would look like visually
for an entire Mahler symphony or an illustration of Baroque counterpoint!

What would it be like to be a string that made music? Not anything simple, like a guitar string or a cello string, but a magical string, a sine curve that's taut then loose, that doubles then doubles again, that sheds then dissolves into showers of notes — a flaming, sighing, looping, dissolving string. Curious?

That's what we've got here, from New York's School of Visual Arts grad student Daniel Sierra. This is his masters' thesis. This is music as you might imagine it in a magical laboratory under a magical microscope. Really close in.





via one of my favorites, Krulwich Wonders on {npr}

in honor of Gatsby

Jeni's ice cream: severely overpriced but such delicious flavors
(and it is from Ohio!).
If I had a say, I think I would make a tribute to
Anne of Green Gables, all of my favorite Astrid Lindgren stories, and Roald Dahl.

A spectacular, edible tribute - a limited-edition collection of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams - in time to try it. (It's sold out, unfortunately, but the idea, I figured, was still worth sharing.) 

The collection features four flavors that transport tasters "from Zelda [Fitzgerald's] childhood home in Alabama, to New York, St. Paul, Paris, and on through the Roaring Twenties." There's cognac with Seville orange marmalade; dark chocolate with whiskey and caraway; sweet cream with blackberries; and homemade biscuits laced with peach jam (created with a nod to the Loveless Cafe in Nashville). Brilliant.

Also, unrelated to Gatsby but just as intriguing (and still in stock!): a flavor that Jeni's describes as "the ice cream version of cheesecake," made from small-batch farmstead cheese and Snowville cream. Sold.

Find this and much more - including flavors like juniper and lemon curd; Savannah buttermilk; and chamomile - at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, here.

via {sho and tell}

fournier

This stole my ears today especially after this weekend.

not just a girl

I love that today celebrates being together, 

that it honors so many unseen efforts, worries, cares and love.

To all my favorite mothers in the world: 

Gabes, Maman, Oma, Claudi...

This wonderful post inspires what I hope daughters can learn from their mothers.

"So my amazing daughter, Emma,  turned 5 last month, and I had been searching everywhere for new-creative inspiration for her 5yr pictures. I noticed quite a pattern of so many young girls dressing up as beautiful Disney Princesses, no matter where I looked 95% of the “ideas” were the “How to’s” of  how to dress your little girl like a Disney Princess. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Disney Princesses, from their beautiful dresses, perfect hair, gorgeous voices and  most with ideal love stories in the mix you can’t help but become entranced with the characters. But it got me thinking, they’re just characters, a writers tale of a princess (most before 1998)…an unrealistic fantasy for most girls (Yay Kate Middleton!).

It started me thinking about all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too, REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better. My daughter wasn’t born into royalty, but she was born into a country where she can now vote, become a doctor, a pilot, an astronaut, or even President if she wants and that’s what REALLY matters. I wanted her to know the value of these amazing women who had gone against everything so she can now have everything. We chose 5 women (five amazing and strong women), as it was her 5th birthday but there are thousands of unbelievable women (and girls) who have beat the odds and fought (and still fight) for their equal rights all over the world……..so let’s set aside the Barbie Dolls and the Disney Princesses for just a moment, and let’s show our girls the REAL women they can be."

via {jamie moore}

5 years

I miss you every day.