Choosing Voluntary Simplicity » Miscellaneous

New England’s Dark Day — May 19, 1780

Shirley — Thu, 19 May 2011 12:43:36 +0000

Two hundred and thirty-one years ago, on May 19, 1780, an area of New England as far south as New Jersey and as far north as Maine experienced an event that has come to be known as "New England's Dark Day." The sky had been a strange yellowish-red color for several days, but before noontime on that day it had become as dark as early evening. Farm animals reacted as if night were approaching... chickens went to roost and cattle came back from grazing to be milked. It was too dark for any outdoor activities, and many people gathered in panicked groups, fearing that perhaps the world was coming to an end.

An Intangible Something Has Been Lost

Shirley — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 17:22:46 +0000

It's actually starting to feel almost spring-like here. When the days are bright and sunny like this, and the temperatures rise above freezing during the day and drop down below freezing at night, this is sugaring weather!

I Hope She Didn’t Try To Eat Them…

Shirley — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:14:47 +0000

A few days ago, my husband and I were clearing leaves and winter debris out of one of the hosta beds when we heard a car stop in the road just slightly past our house. A woman got out of the car and quickly walked to a flower garden we have created at the edge of our lawn. She was carrying a large plastic bag.

Not Really What I Wanted To See This Morning

Shirley — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:25:32 +0000

And it's still snowing... really, really HARD. It looks like a blizzard out there!

What Will Ten Dollars Buy Where You Live?

Shirley — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:33:22 +0000

CNN wanted to know what people could buy with ten dollars in the current economy, so they issued a challenge to their website visitors.

The Year Without a Summer — 1816

Shirley — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:46:03 +0000

I found this old newspaper clipping tucked away inside one of the old 1889 diaries. The year "1889" is written in pencil in a margin on the back, but there is no identifying source on this clipping because of the way it is cut. I would guess that this clipping, like the many others that were saved in these diaries, probably came from the same newspaper that we have always assumed originated in Boston.

“Any Citizen of the United States Has the Recognized Right of Paying His Respects to the President”

Shirley — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:09:58 +0000

I came across an amazing old book about culture and manners this weekend, and I found the tutorial on how to act when meeting the President especially interesting. The book is copyrighted 1890, so the President at the time would have been our twenty-third President, Benjamin Harrison. It's hard to imagine the President of the United States ever being that accessible to the general public.

Have Necessities Become Luxuries Because of the Recession?

Shirley — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:25:41 +0000

I recently came across an interesting survey taken in April of this year about the recession causing necessities to become luxuries. One thousand and three people were asked to answer the question "Do you think this item is a necessity?" about twelve specific appliances and services. The answers turned out to be surprisingly different from the answers in a similar survey taken in 2006... "the year before the recession set in and marked the outer limits of America's housing bubble." It's important to remember that for the previous ten years, the percentage of people who ranked these twelve appliances and services as necessities had been steadily increasing. Not so in the 2009 survey.

Do You Still Want To Shake Hands?

Shirley — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:54:30 +0000

Just in case you've managed to overcome feeling creepy about the bacteria-laden shopping carts, a recent report suggests that people actually have even more bacteria on their hands than scientists previously thought. And according to this study, even though women wash their hands more often than men wash their hands, women's hands test for the widest variety of different types of bacteria, as well as the largest number of bacteria.

Don’t Touch That Shopping Cart!

Shirley — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:05:30 +0000

Did you know there is more bacteria on a shopping cart than on a public restroom toilet seat? According to several recent health warnings, swabs taken from shopping cart handles and seats have shown saliva, blood, fecal matter, mucus, plus Listeria, Salmonella, Staph, E. Coli, and general individual bacteria.