Pretty objects to hide messy essentials in. I like the idea of having a junk jar, or jars depending on how much clutter you have, rather than a junk drawer.  It is certainly more aesthetically pleasing.  These jars are multi-purpose and can be used in your pantry, bathroom, or on a hall table. These fun striped canisters are multi-purpose organization containers.  They are made from tin and should not be used to hold liquid.  The small is 5” H x 4.5” D.  The medium is 6” H x 4.5” D.  The large is 7” H x 4.5” D.  At this point only the Large is available for ..read more

Timely nuggets of information and ideas we want to share with you. New York Magazine did a survey to find the best peanut butter.  The Santa Cruz Organic Crunchy Dark Roasted Peanut Butter won hands down.  It has lots of flavor, very few ingredients, and a great spreadable consistency.  $12.34   This mechanical pencil is self-sharpening, which really appeals to me. It is very high-tech and is made in Japan.  Because it is self-sharpening it produces a consistent line, no matter how long you use it.  Each time the pencil touches the paper, the sharpening mechanism ..read more

Sharon Lorenzo visits the Nantucket Historical Association. Anthony Frederick Sarg was born in Guatemala in 1880 as his grandfather had left Germany to start a coffee business in this location.  Tony returned to Germany with his family in 1897 and was drafted into the army which he disliked very much. He met an attractive American tourist, Bertha McGowan, and promptly followed her to Ohio where they were married in 1909. One daughter, Mary, was born in 1911, and Tony became a U.S. citizen in 1920. The three of them moved to New York City where Sarg set up a studio in the infamous Flatiron ..read more

“Trust everybody but cut the cards.” Finley Peter Dunne I love card games, especially when played with special decks of cards. I often bring cards home from trips and they are a small travel collectible often loaded with wit, memories, and images. They also make great hostess presents or stocking stuffers. This deck is by U.K. artist David Shrigley.  You might notice that all the suits are black!  That could be quite challenging but fun, depending on the game you’re playing. $11.70.   New York City playing cards. Subtle, but right on target. They can be personalized.  $13.4 ..read more

Timely nuggets of information and ideas we want to share with you. The Wayback Machine is where original websites and their contents go when they become obsolete.  The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web that was created in 1996 by the Internet Archive, an American nonprofit based in San Francisco.  It was launched to the public in 2001 and allows users to delve into the past.  Its founders created the Wayback Machine to provide preserved, archived copies of websites no longer in existence.  It has saved over 860 billion web pages and over 99 petabyt ..read more

Some strategies for getting a good tomato crop. Unfortunate things happen in a vegetable garden every year, yet we gardeners tend to talk about them as though they’re completely unexpected. “My cucumbers all have some horrible blight!” we exclaim in dismay, or “the damn birds ate all my raspberries!” The sad fact is that no matter how much work we do to try to get it right in the garden, something will always come out of left field and wreak havoc. All of your zucchini plants suddenly wither and die, or one morning you find every one of your pepper seedlings neatly cut off at the stem, their l ..read more

Timely nuggets of information and ideas we want to share with you. A gardening friend of mine handed me a party favor at dinner at her house after I had been fretting about our puny tomato seedlings.  It was this 4 in 1 Soil Survey Instrument.  I never had met one before and wouldn’t have known I needed it to help my tomatoes. It is an 8” probe that tests your soil pH, temperature and moisture levels, and sunlight intensity. It is easy to read and understand.  Soil temperature is important, so you know when it is safe wrest the baby seedlings from the comfort of your home and pl ..read more

The Euphronios Krater, Greek figure Vase,  515 B.C. The Euphronios Krater, Greek figure Vase, Carabinieri Guards in Rome. This lovely work of art is called a calyx krater which some authorities think was used to mix water and wine as the wine in those times was very much like thick maple syrup that needed to be thinned before drinking.  Other historians think these kinds of objects were so precious and fragile that they might have been used as ceremonial trophies for athletes in the Olympic games. This was one of 27 which this potter made, and it was fired three times: first in clay ..read more

Ramen: A Japanese adaptation of Chinese noodle soups – the ultimate comfort food. Ramens began in China and when Chinese immigrants traveled to Japan in the late 19th or early 20th century, the tradition of noodles in a soupy broth traveled with them. They spread all over Japan and ramen outdoor street stalls sprang up everywhere.  In 1958 the instant noodle was invented which allowed consumers to make ramen in their homes. Now there are ramen shops and bars around the world.  In Japan alone there are over 24,000 ramen shops, with over 5,000 in Tokyo alone. My husband has been having ..read more

This class has come of age amid divisiveness, health crises and devastating wars. These college graduates began their freshman years mostly online with limited social interaction and many people dying around the world. This is the same class of young adults who had their high school proms and graduations canceled in 2020 due to COVID. Four years later, their college graduations were fraught with disruption due to political unrest in many countries.  The silver lining is that studies have found that this class is politically aware and paying attention to what’s happening around them. This ..read more