Footle and Grok

Today I returned to Returning the Favor.

I wrote in a past post about this fantastic Facebook show where Mike Rowe gives supplies, money, and support to normal people around the country who are doing something special for their community. This show has been around for several years, and I never missed an episode.

But 2020 changed everything, including Facebook shows. Returning the Favor took a break, and I stopped looking for it. However, a new episode showed up today in my Facebook feed, and I couldn’t wait to see it. Even 2020 can’t stop Mike and his gang from helping out someone who is making a difference.

Returning the Favor is now virtual, but it still works. Mike is witty as always, and the recipient is grateful and overwhelmed, as always. I’m glad that Returning the Favor is back, and I’ll be catching up on any episodes I missed.

Check out the current episode here, and then watch all the past episodes. In a world filled with bad news, Returning the Favor will raise your spirits and give you hope. Just what we need in 2020.

“And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”

Edgar Allan Poe

Every October, I read “The Masque of the Red Death” out loud to my hubby by candlelight. It is my favorite Edgar Allan Poe story (many others are a close second.)

As I read it this year, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a tale for 2020, for we have also been locked in our homes. I hope your decorations are a little less garish, but none the less, I could hear the similarities as I read.

This is good.

Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Masque of the Red Death” in 1842. The macabre tale shows us that this is not the first time humans have confronted a pandemic, and it won’t be the last. We have weathered calamities in the past, and we will get through this as well.

Even though “The Masque of the Red Death” is a tale about how you can not escape death, I find hope in its timelessness.

I hope you will read this short story this October. I have it on my shelf, but you can find a copy here for your reading enjoyment. If possible, read it out loud, with or without the candle. There is beauty in its spookiness, sort of like life.

I hope we all surprise ourselves in good ways.

Last Friday, we got lost.

Hubby wanted to go for a drive, but he didn’t expect gravel roads, dead-end signs, and a three-hour tour.

I was in the car with him, but I have no idea where we went. All I know is he kept trying to go south, but the few signs we saw pointed every direction but home.

Still, we had wanted to go for a drive, so we took road after road and ended up one county over. That’s when we found something unexpected.

Brooklyn.

This Brooklyn is in Gray’s Harbor, Washington, not New York, and it’s a heck of a lot smaller. We had no idea that there was a Brooklyn in Washington. Our Brooklyn was hardly a town since it only had one building, a bar.

Once I had cell service again, I looked up Brooklyn, Washington, and found a great article in a newspaper from, of all places, Brooklyn, New York.

Apparently, the Brooklyn Bar is famous (or at least it was in 2010 when the article was written), and people drive from all over to hang out with the owner and enjoy a beer. Since you have to drive at least 20 miles and some of it on one lane gravel, it must be a really good bar.

If you want some entertainment, check out the article in the Brooklyn Paper. I imagine the people in Brooklyn, New York, were amazed that anyone would drive twenty miles for a beer.

Even though our drive took three hours longer than we expected, it was worth it. I may never go to Brooklyn, Washington again (I have no idea how we got there), but I’m glad to know it exists.

I tend to bake certain items at certain times of the year. I make Irish soda bread in March, chocolate fudge in December, and pumpkin muffins in October.

This year, I wanted to make pumpkin scones instead of muffins, so I searched for a recipe. My favorite recipe website is Taste of Home (I got the magazine in the 1990s), and it didn’t disappoint.

Moist Pumpkin Scones are easy to make and very tasty. The icing adds to the moistness, but they are good without it. I gave them away to friends, and everyone liked them.

You can make Moist Pumpkin Scones year-round, but I think pumpkin tastes better in the fall, so get baking. Everyone loves a treat this time of year.

Happy Dictionary Day!

Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758. He wrote the first American dictionary and included many Americanized words like “color” instead of “colour” and “center” instead of “centre.” He believed in simplifying the language, as did many founding fathers.

While Webster wrote the first American dictionary, the idea of word lists with definitions go back millenniums. The oldest wordlist is a cuneiform tablet with bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian words from 2300 BCE. The oldest monolingual dictionary was found in China and dates to around 300 BCE.

I’d be willing to bet that as soon as humans could write, they were making word lists. How else were scribes to learn the correct order of their symbols?

I find it interesting that there were dictionaries around all this time (the first dictionary in English dates back to 1220 AD.) and yet people were very fluid in their spelling. If you ever read historical journals, such as ones from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the spelling changes from page to page.

Who decided that uniformity was important? If I were to guess, it was when schools changed from an apprentice-style to a classroom setting. It’s hard to grade children if they there are no spelling rules. As someone who gets annoyed by all the spelling errors in Facebook memes, I’m not sure much as changed. But I am grateful to Noah Webster for trying.

Noah Webster Notables

• (The following facts are from The Noah Webster House.)
• Noah socialized with Ben Franklin.
• Noah loved music and dancing.
• He once lived in a house in New Haven that belonged to Benedict Arnold.
• The dictionary took Noah 27 years to compile and was published when he was 70 years old.
• Noah’s, An American Dictionary, published in 1828, contained 70,000 words.
• Noah helped form the Society for the Promotion of Freedom in 1792, which was an early abolitionist group.
• Noah was very outspoken and frequently pointed out the flaws of others.
• Noah remained committed to education throughout his life. He believed that the survival of the United States depended on its educated people.
• Noah died in 1843 at the age of 85. He is buried in New Haven’s Grove Street Cemetery.

After watching Knives Out, I had an urge to watch the 2017 version of Murder on the Orient Express (MOTOE.) I had seen this movie once and vaguely remembered liking it. Knives Out has a similar feel, although more tongue-in-cheek, so I thought I might like MOTOE even more the second time.

I was right.

There are older remakes of MOTOE, and I didn’t like any of them. However, the 2017 version is amazing. The acting is superb, and the cast is first-rate. The scenery is grand, and I would love to travel on the Orient Express after watching this movie.

I won’t spoil the plot, but you probably know what happens unless you have never heard of this Agatha Christie novel. The solving of the mystery and it’s aftermath is handled in just the right way. I love the reveal at the end.

Hercule Poirot is not my favorite literary sleuth. When I was a kid, I detested both him and Miss Marple. I preferred a good Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe story.

I’m still not a fan of Miss Marple, but I have grown to like Mr. Poirot. Kenneth Branagh did a wonderful job playing the Belgium detective, although I thought his mustache, while literarily accurate, was distracting.

My favorite Poirot story is Murder on the Nile. MOTOE ends with him heading off to solve that crime. Depending on the COVID world, Murder on the Nile is coming to theaters this December. I’m not holding my breath, but I would gladly see it whenever it comes out.

I have one request. If you decide to watch Murder on the Orient Express, give it your complete attention. I like to work on my laptop during movies, but I did nothing but focus on this one. The movie is twisty and is more enjoyable if you watch every moment. Plus, it is a visual pleasure.

I reached 900 miles today, so needless to say; I’ve been running and walking a lot. It’s a beautiful time to walk around my hometown with many trees turning red, yellow, and orange.

Today, as I admired the fall colors, I wondered why they change. I had a vague notion that it had something to do with a lack of chlorophyll, but I wasn’t sure why. The reason is fascinating, and I’m glad I did some research.

Different chemicals cause the red, yellow, or orange of a fall leaf. Those chemicals are always present in the leaf, but the color is hidden when the tree is making food during the summer. The green comes from chlorophyll. In the fall, trees stop making food, and the green disappears, revealing the fall color that was there all the time.

There is a PDF on the Science Bob website that explains which chemicals create each color. It could be a useful handout for teachers or anyone interested in science.

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion,”

Henry David Thoreau

I’ve been converting a scrapbook made in the 1980s into a digital album. There are report cards, awards, birthday cards, homework pages, and school photos. The official documents have dates, but many other items do not. Sigh.

I can guess some items’ dates because they are between two dated items, but it’s not always possible. I want the album to be accurate, and sometimes all I can do is guess.

I realized that I don’t always put the date on things like birthday cards. After all, the person receiving the card knows it’s is their birthday. However, I’m changing my ways and becoming a dedicated date-adder.

I encourage you to become one too. Whenever you write a card or letter (if you do ecards, then you’re off the hook), add the date in the corner. When you print a photo, add the date to the back. You might think that you’ll remember, but I promise you won’t.

If I could go back in time, I would tell my dad (who assembled the original album) to date every page and every item. I’m working on my family’s 2020 Shutterfly album, and I now date every page, no exceptions. I have no idea what will happen to my scrapbooks, but I don’t want to cause future generations any confusion.

It’s a simple thing to do, and I think it’s important for history. I encourage everyone to date any memory worth keeping.