Category — Mental Sampler

We have tried so many bathroom cleaners over the years, but I saw a YouTube video for a simple fix, decided to try it, and it actually worked. So I’m passing it along to you.

Take an empty spray bottle. (I used the bottle from a spray cleaner I just finished.) Fill it about a quarter of the way with blue Dawn. It needs to be the basic, original Dawn. Add three times the amount of white vinegar. Shake it until the two liquids are mixed together.

Go to the bathroom, wet the walls (if they are tile) and tub, and spray down all surfaces. Just heavily spray it with the solution. Then walk away and set a timer for an hour. Go back with a bristle brush and scrub. You won’t have to scrub that hard, but you’ll have to go over the surface with a little effort. Rinse the walls and tub, and the vinegar scent disappears along with stains and soap scum. It was kind of amazing.

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A friend of mine died many years ago. He has been on my mind because the twins go to college near where he grew up and where I know he is buried.

I was recently Googling for a song, and a website came up, created by a friend of his, capturing my old friend’s version of that song. His friend had put 8 songs — new arrangements of common songs — that my friend recorded before he died up on the site. And when I hit play, I got to hear him singing it.

It was such a happy surprise because even though I knew he was a musician, I didn’t know this site existed. And I only have photographs, no videos, because it was all film cameras back then. So it felt extra special to stumble upon it.

I learned about a website from Kottke that allows you to see reciprocal library card options. I knew about all of the ones tied to my card, but then I started looking up libraries that had reciprocal agreements with my original library, and they had reciprocal agreements with other libraries. I looked at the library furthest east, west, south, and north, often finding that one of my reciprocal partnerships opened up into a whole new set of additional partnerships.

It’s kind of an odd idea: Could you cross the US building on reciprocal partnerships? I think I may have found myself a summer project.

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I’ve had “Simple Gifts” stuck in my head for weeks due to a line in A Deadly Education where she uses it as a meditation. Oh no. I read the line, and the song started looping in my head, over and over again.

Then Josh asked if I wanted to see The Testament of Ann Lee. A movie about Shakers? “Simple Gifts” is a Shaker song. The song went back into my brain.

Finally, we went to the symphony, and lo and behold, the final song of the evening? Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, which contains… yes… you guessed it… THE TUNE OF “SIMPLE GIFTS.”

I am never going to get this song out of my head.

While I don’t remember ever seeing the show as a child, the theme song to Love, American Style has been stuck in my brain for weeks. Josh and I thought it was an early reality television show, but the Wikipedia page describes it as a comedy series with “multiple stories of romance, usually with a comedic spin.”

But before we saw the page, Josh thought it was like Real People with a romantic twist. That led us down a rabbit hole where we discovered you could watch Real People episodes on YouTube.

YouTube also has Circus of the Stars clips and Battle of the Network Stars.

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Back in February, Jellycat featured a jerboa in their daily email. I held onto the email, and told my nibling about it because we share a love of all things jellycat. But a week or so ago, my sister randomly sent me a package. I opened the box, and my fingers touched those long, soft ears, and I shrieked.

MY SISTER AND NIBLING GOT ME A JERBOA.

After making a shortlist of names, I decided to call him Kitto, which is Cornish for Christopher.

I set him on my side table at night so he can watch us sleep, which creeps out Josh a bit. But at least the stuffed version means I don’t spend all night anymore asking him how often he wishes we could have a real jerboa friend. So there is that.

I have the best sister and nibling.

I kept taking The Satsuma Complex on and off my to-read list. I couldn’t decide whether or not I liked Bob Mortimer’s comedy or whether I wanted to read a comedic book at all.

But I saw Bob on Last One Laughing, and while he didn’t make me laugh like Joe Wilkinson or Richard Ayoade, I found myself still thinking about a piece he did during the show, and I decided to give the book a try.

I liked it, I didn’t like it, my reaction was literally a replica of how I felt about putting it on and taking it off my to-read. Until. I was suddenly really enjoying it and looking forward to listening to the next chapter, and I realized that Bob Mortimer’s comedy is a slow-burn for me. Which was a very happy discovery.

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On the topic of needing moments of lightness, when I’m down, I still watch Where the Hell is Matt?

It has had 53 million views by this point, which is kind of incredible. But there is something that happens about 2/3rd of the way through the video (another slow burn!) where I suddenly feel hopeful, despite all happening in the world.

Many museums limit the size of the bag you can bring into exhibits to an A4 sheet of paper, or approximately 21 x 30 cm (8 inches x 11.5 inches… ish). My daily bag comes from Tom Binn, and I love it, but it’s 26.5 cm x 30 cm. It’s a small difference, but I get stopped and told the bag cannot come inside.

My other option is a 20 cm x 26 cm bag, which is always allowed in, but is a bit cramped. I carry a 12 cm x 21 cm notebook with me, and while it fits, the padding inside the bag means it often gets wedged in there, and I have to take everything out to slip it out.

Do you have an A4-sized bag that you love? Extra points if it has anti-theft protection and a cross-body strap. And is fabric and not leather.

This one is a little small, but I like it. This one is also a little bit small but getting closer. This one may be slightly too big.

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Did you know you could remove AI results from Google searches or only see results from a certain domain (e.g., .gov or .org). Now you do.