Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I read a super interesting New Yorker piece about a barbecue restaurant called Piggie Park, owned and operated by a white supremacist who decorated his restaurant in confederate flags.  Kathleen Purvis spoke for many when she said, “When I learned about Bessinger’s history, I stopped buying his products. I followed a simple policy on the Piggie Park: I didn’t go there. Ever.”

Then he died and his kids took over, removing the flags and their father’s political point-of-view.  Which brought about the question that drives the New Yorker piece: Is it now okay to go to Piggie Park?  Some felt the old man and his hate was gone, and it was okay to patron the place.  Others felt that the legacy of hate and the history of hurt should still be driving the decision to avoid the place.

I don’t eat barbecue — that whole vegetarian thing — so I had to think about this question in terms of a favourite space.  What if the owner of my favourite restaurant started to spew hate speech?  No brainer — I would stop patronizing the place.  What if she died and her kids took over, keeping the same recipes but changing the personality of the space?  Could I eat there?

I don’t think I could.  For me, the food is tied to the experience, and I don’t think I would have much of an appetite if I walked into the space, thinking about what had happened before that point.

What about you?  Would you eat at your own personal Piggie Park if that happened?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I’m in my last few days of being 42.  I am always bummed out about my birthday and getting older, but in this case, I waited my whole life to be 42, and now it’s almost over.

I was really excited to celebrate my Douglas Adams birthday.

But can I tell you the worst story?  When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to be 19 because it’s a number that is fun to say in Hebrew.  It has a “T” sound in the beginning of the word, but because of the other letters around it, it almost sounds like the word chai (as in “chai tea”) said with a T.  I know, sort of hard to imagine if you don’t know Hebrew, so here is a video of a guy saying the numbers 11 to 19.

Anyway I forgot that I was 19 until a few days before my 20th birthday.  I was washing my hair at my friend’s apartment in Oslo when it dawned on me that I had been 19 the whole year and had never said aloud how old I was.  My diary is entry after entry about how I was finally 19 and blew it.

Remembering that, I sucked the marrow out of being 42.  Thanks, Mr. Adams.

Is there a certain age you always wanted to be?  Why?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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One of my biggest problems with air travel is my inability to wear my boots.  Maybe I could wear my boots, but I never risk them when I have to go through security because they have steel toes.  I will not pack my boots with my baggage, which means I never fly with my boots.

My boots make me feel like myself, and because I can’t wear them when I need to go somewhere on a plane, I never feel like myself when I’m on a trip.

I wear my boots all year round.  Pretty much every day.  Sometimes they’re tied.  Sometimes they’re not.  They make me feel powerful even though I know in my heart that I’m not powerful.  My big, black, clunky boots are the most Melissa thing I own.

Do you have something you wear that makes you feel like you?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I did not participate in the 10 concert Facebook meme because (1) I don’t go to a lot of concerts.  Yes, I’ve been to over 10 during the course of my lifetime, but I’m not a big concert goer and don’t really feel like reminiscing about them.  (2) I go to most concerts for other people.  Therefore, my concert list doesn’t reflect my musical tastes.  (3) I didn’t really get the point of the lie unless you constantly speak about concerts.  I did a tongue-in-cheek version swapping in theater instead of concerts because it is a running joke that I talk about certain plays incessantly.  The ones on the list are the ones that people generally roll their eyes about when I start quoting from them.

A side comment: when we cleaned out our bookcases, we found 8 copies of the same Dürrenmatt play.

Anyway, I did go to a concert last week — Midnight Oil.  It felt like slipping on a t-shirt from high school.  90% of the reason I wanted to go to the show was to watch Peter Garrett dance.  But normally, not a concert fan.

Do you like concerts?  And did you do the meme if you don’t really like concerts?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Atlas Obscura had a post on mystery hikes in the 1930s.  The opening says it all:

On March, 23, 1932, crowds descended upon Paddington Station, London after paying expressly for the privilege of being kept in the dark. They enthusiastically waited for a train with no known destination. Even the conductors had no idea where they would go. They were going to be passengers on London’s very first Hiker’s Mystery Train Express.

They boarded a train with no clue where they would end up.  This activity became very popular in several countries, and it was viewed with the same regard as today’s glampers.  It’s hiking, but it’s not really hiking.  The point is not knowing where you’ll end up.

I peeked at the current travel companies that do this sort of thing, though the first involved flights and the second involved places I didn’t really want to go.  I think I would love this if it was low-commitment, like the mystery hike.  A single day, ending up who knows where, with a bunch of other people who are all in the same situation.  Not so much if it’s a trip for multiple days.

Would you go on a mystery hike?  A longer mystery trip?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.