Messing about with empathy
Here’s my plan.
Two summer reading programs in one summer.
Both online and open to adults.
That’s what I call perfection.
Happy National Hamburger Day.
I love hamburgers and eat them year-round, but with summer right around the corner, I can understand why this holiday is celebrated at the end of May.
The fun thing about hamburgers is anyone can eat them. There is a burger for carnivores, vegetarians, and vegans. It is a perfect food, portable and adaptable to anyone’s tastes.
What I’m curious about is hamburger toppings. Do you like a lot of toppings or just cheese? Or perhaps no cheese. Do you use Mustard? Ketchup? Mayo?
I love Five Guys burgers because they have a ton of toppings. If I’m at a fancy restaurant, I always hope they have a bleu cheeseburger because I love bleu cheese. At home, I top my burgers with mustard, A-1, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, and jalapenos if I have them. The only topping I would never put on my burger is mayo.
Okay, so I love toppings on my hamburger. What do you like? Let me know in the comments.
I think I’m going to make burgers for dinner tonight.
This is a story about learning a new word, but it’s also a story about the path I took to learn this word.
The word is “usufruct.” When I first read it, I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce it.
It all started when I was listening to “Court Appointed,” one of my favorite podcasts. The granddaughter of one of the hosts was on. Charlie is six and quite opinionated. She said that anyone with a single-digit age should make the laws. The host, her grandfather, said that Thomas Jefferson had a similar idea.
I hadn’t heard of this before but didn’t pursue it. Then Hubby and I were enjoying a beautiful evening around our burn pile, and I brought up this idea of each generation making new laws. Hubby is a lawyer, and he had never heard of this idea or that Jefferson had suggested it.
So I googled and found that it was true. The following passage is from The Society for US Intelectual History.
In September 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison from Paris that “the question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water.” In making his own answer, Jefferson famously declared that “the earth belongs in usufruct to the living,” that “by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independant nation to another,” and furthermore that “no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law… Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.”
This idea did not make it into the Constitution, which is why Hubby hadn’t heard of it. I thought it was an interesting bit of history, but what the heck did the word “usufruct” mean? It was completely foreign to me, so of course, I had to look it up.
Usufruct is a legal word (which is why I hadn’t heard of it.) According to Merriam-Webster, it means:
the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another
A good example of this is if a man gives his house to his children upon his death, but his wife can live in the house as long as she lives. That makes sense to me, but I doubt I’ll ever have a chance to use this word in normal conversation.
Of course, Jefferson did, so who knows. I’m more fascinated by how I went from a podcast to a new word. Life is fascinating. I hope you learn something new today.
I love learning new things. The odd, the unusual, and topics that are taboo are my favorites. So, of course, I clicked on a YouTube video by Ask a Mortician. It was brilliant! I have watched a lot of her videos and enjoyed every one. Are they morbid? Of course, she’s a mortician.
I have interests in many odd topics that I don’t share on this blog, but I couldn’t resist sharing this channel with you. Death is a topic that most people avoid, but Caitlin Doughty makes it relatable and entertaining (1.5 million subscribers agree.)
There are many videos to choose from, and I haven’t found a bad one yet*. Why not peruse her channel and pick one that interests you. Or, if you don’t want to think about death, skip it. Not all videos are for everyone.
But these are definitely for me.
*I just saw this one, so I thought I’d share it. It’s more about the funeral industry than death, so it could be a good place to start. (If you can’t watch it, click on the post title and watch it on my website.)
Happy Towel Day!
This is not a day to celebrate cotton and terrycloth. This is the day to enjoy the marvelous stories that make up the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” saga written by Douglas Adams.
One of the great things about this series (and there are many great things) is that whenever Douglas Adams wrote the story in a different medium, he changed it. So if you watch the movie, read the book, or listen to the radio show, you will get similar but not exactly the same stories.
Normally this would bug me, but Douglas Adams was the one who made these changes, and since Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was his creation, I love seeing all the ways he tweaked the story. They are all wonderful in their own way.
You can find the radio show and books on Audible.com. If possible, find the audiobook written by Douglas Adams. He does a great job reading it. (Although a narration by Stephen Fry or Martin Freeman would be lovely too.) I own a leather-bound copy of the first four books, so I’ll be reading today.
Douglas Adams hid a lot of wisdom among the satire and comedy of his stories. I think that is why they have lasted so long. Plus, “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
It’s time for another meme Monday. This meme reminded me of two things.
If you want to watch a delightful movie with a happy but tearful ending, I recommend Christopher Robin starring Ewan McGregor. This movie came out in 2018, but I didn’t see it until 2020 because I knew I would bawl my eyes out. I did do that, but I loved this movie. It’s so sweet, and Winnie the Pooh’s wisdom is marvelous.
I love going to Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but the hotels annoy me. The rooms sleep four or more, and the prices start around $200 and go up and up. I can’t be the only person who might travel there by myself or with one other person. I also can’t be the only person who uses the hotel for sleeping only. I don’t need pools or fancy decor. I want to visit the parks.
Japan has honeycomb or capsule hotels where there the rooms fit one person with no extras. I’d love to have an option like that at the Disney parks. I was thinking of how to theme this hotel, and the idea of a honeycomb gave me the answer.
Call it the Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree Honeycomb Hotel. Theme it with Pooh and his friends, and I guarantee that everyone will want to stay there. Think of it as a single rider option. Price it around $75 a night, and it will be a hit.
I hope you find a smackeral of wonder in your day.
I checked out Buck Rogers in the 25th Century from the library. This show ran from 1979 to 1981, and I remember enjoying it as a kid.
After watching the pilot, I have no idea how I was allowed to watch this show. It’s cheesy as heck, but it tried really hard to be for adults, not kids. Yet, I watched it at age seven. Since the only thing I remembered was the cute robot, I guess I just ignored the scanty clothes and galactic problems.
It’s fun to watch old TV shows, but I’m glad TV has improved over the decades. Although who knows, maybe the 25th century will look like 1979.
Oh boy, I hope not.
Sometimes it is nice to be reminded of things that we know but forget.
If you have a problem with a website (say, PayPal), before you call the help center and wait for a callback, try logging out and logging back in.
It worked for me.
Our produce guy is once again selling fresh fruit and vegetables from Yakima after a prolonged illness. It must be cucumber season because my hubby has been buying them three at a time. I like cucumbers, but I normally eat about one a week, and they go bad fast. So I’ve been making a lot of marinated cucumbers.
I’m not a huge fan of marinated cucumbers (I’d rather they be fermented and become pickles), but hubby loves them. They are so easy to make (peeling the cucs is the hardest part) that I don’t mind making batch after batch. That’s a good thing because I just finished making some, and Hubby gave me more cucumbers.
There are probably dozens of recipes for marinated cucumbers. Mine comes from Let’s Go Dutch, the cookbook my father-in-law gave us as a wedding gift. As I said, it’s super simple and quite refreshing on a warm day.
I’m here to tell you that whatever you’re putting off, it’s not as awful as you imagine, and it won’t take as long as you think.
So get it done. You know what you have to do. Today is the day.