January 21, 2015 by suzannesmom
National Public Radio’s Eleanor Beardsley reported recently on a borrowing trend.
Nothing to do with Mary Norton’s Borrowers, who gather up all the buttons and safety pins you’ve lost and store them in their home somewhere under your floorboards. No, this is about you needing a rarefied plumber’s tool to replace the kitchen faucet and deciding to borrow one for a day. (Maybe two days if a two-year-old I know offers to help.) All you need is an app called Peerby.
“It isn’t surprising that the idea for the borrowing platform Peerby [peer nearby] originated in one of the world’s most densely populated countries — The Netherlands,” says Beardsley.
“Founder Daan Weddepohl says he had the idea for the startup after his house burned down, and he had to borrow everything. At first, he says, he felt dependent, but then realized people generally like helping each other because it creates a bond. …
“In June, Peerby was selected best urban app in the AppMyCity! competition, held as part of the New Cities Summit in Dallas. Peerby hooks up 100,000 borrowers and lenders each month in the Netherlands. Since its launch in 2012, the company has expanded to Belgium, Berlin and London. …
“Cindy Bakum, an Amsterdam native, is a regular Peerby user.
” ‘Last time I had a friend over, and we were watching a movie on his laptop, but he forgot his adapter, and my adapter didn’t fit,’ she says. ‘So I put out a request, and it was actually my neighbor. He really lived on my block, and he had an adapter, so we could finish watching the movie. So that worked very well.’ ”
It’s all about the sharing economy. Read up on it at the All Things Considered blog, here.
Photo: Merriam-Webster
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged all things considered, borrow, borrower, Daan Weddepohl, eleanor beardsley, Netherlands, peerby, postaday, sharing economy | Leave a Comment »
January 20, 2015 by suzannesmom
Looking through a pile of magazines recently, I found a 2011 newspaper article I had cut out about Hardwick, Vermont. It’s about reinventing the local culture around food and food-related businesses.
Dirk Van Susteren wrote at the Boston Globe, “If there were a ‘Locavore Capital of America’ one would expect it to be in sunny California or perhaps somewhere in the heartland … But, surprisingly, in rocky northern New England, just 45 miles from the Canadian border, is a place that could contend for that honor: Hardwick, a former quarrying town that until recently knew more pain than promise.
“In recent years Hardwick, population 3,200, located along a tumbling stretch of the Lamoille River, has seen a half-dozen innovative agricultural enterprises crop up, many with mission statements including such words as ‘community-based,’ ‘sustainable,’ and ‘organic.’
“The town, always a bit scruffy, and with a high jobless rate, might be on a green trajectory. And people are taking notice.
“Among the new operations here or in nearby towns: Jasper Hill Farm, which makes artisanal cheeses and provides aging, distribution, and marketing services to local cheesemakers; High Mowing Seed Co., an organic seed business, whose owner likes traveling around the country to tell the Hardwick farm and food story; Highfields Center for Composting, a soil-making business that collects its raw materials from restaurants, farms, and schools; Pete’s Greens, a CSA (community-support ed agriculture) farm that grows organic vegetables in gardens and greenhouses; and, finally, Vermont Soy, a tofu and soymilk producer.
“The area also has dozens of small-scale producers, from orchardists to maple sugarmakers. Their products sell at farm stands, at the summer farmers’ market, and at Buffalo Mountain Food Co-op and Cafe, a landmark in its 36th year. …
“Monty Fischer, the executive director of the Center for an Agricultural Economy, the nonprofit organization that helped spur these farm efforts, has kept count. ‘People from 40 states and 40 countries have come to ask about our agricultural cluster,’ he reports, from his downtown office.”
Read about the 2011 federal grant for the Vermont Food Venture Center, an incubator facility, the organic North Hardwick Dairy, where sunflowers are grown as a value-added crop, mead maker Caledonia Spirits, and more here.
And if anyone has been up there recently, I sure would love to know if the food culture is still going strong.
Photo: Wikipedia
North Main St., Hardwick, Vermont
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Buffalo Mountain Food Co-op, caledonia spirits, cheese, community, dairy, Dirk Van Susteren, farm, food, hardwick, highfields, incubator, jasper hill, locavore, mead, Monty Fischer, orchard, organic, postaday, rodale, sugarmaker, sustainable, Vermont, vertexen | Leave a Comment »
January 19, 2015 by suzannesmom
I love listening to Worcester-based WICN (jazz radio). Bonnie Johnson had an especially good show yesterday, opening with Cynthia Scott and 3rd, 4th & 5th graders of PS32 in Brooklyn, NY, singing “Dream for One Bright World.”
“There is a new day dawning
“The time is now
“The world is ready for a change …
“Let’s teach out children to care
“To help one another
“And mend broken hearts
“So many children in the world
“Have never had a chance
“Their time has come …
(More lyrics here.)
You can listen to WICN online at wicn.org. Bonnie Johnson’s program is described at Colors of Jazz. “Bonnie Johnson is host of Colors of Jazz on Sunday afternoon from noon-4 pm. If you asked the Worcester native how she found jazz, she would tell you that jazz found her. As an undergraduate student at Howard University in Washington, DC, Ms. Johnson became a fan of the Quiet Storm featured on the college station WHUR-FM. …
“Ms. Johnson appreciates the diversity and the evolution of music. As a self-taught electric bassist, she has enjoyed many years of playing various types of music with her daughter and close friends in a family band. Growing up, she sang in the St. Cecilia Girl Choir at All Saints Worcester. …
“Ms. Johnson holds B.A. in Liberal Studies and M.S. in Communications and Information Management degrees from Bay Path College. She believes the future of jazz is in our children, stating, ‘Music and the arts is one area that gives young people an outlet and release of creative energy. While there are many children exposed to music through lessons and attending live performances, there are too many more that are not.’ One of Johnson’s primary goals as host at WICN is to reach youth in creative ways through community engagement.”
That’s something to think about on Martin Luther King’s birthday — and maybe to act on, too.
Bonnie Johnson, host of WICN radio’s Colors of Jazz
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bay path college, brooklyn, children, colors of jazz, community, cynthia scott, Dream for One Bright World, howard university, jazz, martin luther king jr, mlk jr, music, postaday, ps32, radio, wicn, worcester, youth | Leave a Comment »
January 18, 2015 by suzannesmom
Saturday was a day for hawks. I saw one on the highway as I drove home from John’s and then another one just a little farther along. Each was perched on a high limb, scanning the road and the verge for lunch. A third hawk, in the center of town, dove after a small bird, but being intercepted and stunned by a fast-moving car, wheeled back to land on a parked vehicle, catch his breath, and pose for photos.
I wondered why the hawk was hunting in such a heavily populated area. It must be hard to find food in this weather.
Fortunately, I had bought my camera, having decided that I don’t get enough pictures for the blog if I give in to the cold and take my daily walk indoors. There aren’t many photo ops when you go ’round and ’round from the hall to the living room to the dining room to the kitchen … .
If any reader knows what type of hawk this is, I’d appreciate being enlightened.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cold, cooper's hawk, hawk, photo, photography, postaday, winter | 7 Comments »
January 17, 2015 by suzannesmom
At Christmas, Yuriko sent a translated Japan News article about the business she runs with her husband, who retired rather young. She told me the newspaper, called Yomiuri Shinbun in Japan, “has the largest distribution nationwide. We were really busy after that.”
The article mentioned that Japanese retirees starting small businesses or finding work at a reduced rate is a growing phenomenon, so I Googled around to see if I could learn more.
Kanoko Matsuyama writes at Bloomberg Businessweek, “When he retired three years ago, Hirofumi Mishima got right back to work. After aging out of a $77,000-a-year job as an industrial gas analyst, he spent six months trawling the vacancy boards at a Tokyo employment center.
“Fifteen days each month, Mishima, 69, rises at 4 a.m. for an eight-and-a-half-hour shift overseeing the supply of hydrogen gas to buses. His daily commute has risen from three hours to four even as his earnings have dropped by more than a third. ‘Keeping a regular job is the most stimulating thing for me,’ he says. ‘Now, I work for my health. I’m very happy my job gives me mobility and helps me stay active.’
“Though Japan’s retirement age stands at 60, more than 5.7 million Japanese have continued to work past 65, either because they can’t afford to stop working or they’re looking to get out of the house. The nation’s private companies can force employees to retire at 60 if they wish, so workers often accept slashed wages to stay on, sometimes in a reduced capacity as they start collecting public pension benefits. …
“Under the current system, Japanese men exit the labor market on average at 70, and women at 67, according to a 2011 report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. ‘The pension isn’t enough to live comfortably,’ says Kazuyoshi Hirota, 69, who works 24 hours a week as an apartment building manager and janitor in central Tokyo. Hirota retired seven years ago from his full-time security job at Asahi Group Holdings. His wife, 70, works as a cleaner. It’s not just about the money, though: ‘Life is boring without work,’ he says.”
More here.
My friend Yuriko runs a consignment shop. Her husband does financial consulting in the same storefront, which gives Yuriko flexibility to run out and look after her 90-something mother-in-law.
Photo: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Hirofumi Mishima, japan, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Kanoko Matsuyama, Kazuyoshi Hirota, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, postaday, retiree, small business, start-up, Yomiuri Shinbun | Leave a Comment »
January 16, 2015 by suzannesmom
In high school, I had a small part in Thorton Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth. As arch and self-conscious as it is, there are phrases that stick with you for your whole life. Even my sister remembers phrases, and she wasn’t in it. One of my brothers had a small role in a different production and remembers the ad-libbing part where a key actor supposedly has fallen ill, and the stage manager and all the cast and crew come out on the stage, and one of the ad-libbers says, “It must have been the chocolate matzohs.”
Among the phrases that stick for a lifetime are: “We came through the Depression by the skin of our teeth. One more tight squeeze like that, and where would we be?” and “Pray God nothing happened to the Master crossing the Hudson River!” and “Sabina, you let the fire go out!” and “The dogs are sticking to the sidewalks!”
The dogs were sticking to the sidewalks because there was an Ice Age going on, complete with woolly mammoths. … I know.
Anyway, there are those of us who to this day express how cold it is by exclaiming, “The dogs are sticking to the sidewalks!” It’s that kind of weather in New England lately. Suzanne’s family went skiing in New Hampshire near Mt Washington when I saw on twitter that the temperature at the top of the mountain was minus 81 degrees. That’s what my husband calls Type 2 Fun, the kind of fun that is only fun in retrospect, when you can tell the story.For more on The Skin of Our Teeth, click here. And here is one of my more recent wintry photos. Sunny but bitterly cold.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cold, dogs are sticking to the sidewalks, ice age, mt washington, new hampshire, postaday, skin of our teeth, thorton wilder | 2 Comments »
January 15, 2015 by suzannesmom
I asked around whether any local nonprofits were providing a service opportunity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. on the Monday holiday. Here is what I learned.
Rhode Island
The Rhode Island Black Heritage Society told me it published a 12-page booklet to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery March. The Dr. King Booklet is free. Postage is $3 for one booklet or $4 for two or more copies. To have one mailed, send a $3 check to RIBHS at 123 North Main Street, Providence, RI 02903 or call 401-421-0606.
“Let Freedom Ring: 50 Years Later …” Woonsocket, RI. Memorial Service, King Memorial Sculpture Garden, South Main Street, across from St. James Baptist Church, 10 a.m., January 19, 2015. Youth Service Learning Project, St. James Baptist Church, 340 South Main St., 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Participants will help collect basic-needs items and snack food for the homeless. Contact nofokansi@neighborworksbrv.org or call 762-0993, ext. 234.
Providence College MLK Jr. Day of Service (2nd annual). Open Mic Night and Potluck, PC/Smith Hill Annex, 231 Douglas Ave., Providence. 2-5:30 p.m. Click here for info.
Special programs are being held to celebrate Martin Luther King Day at Audubon’s Environmental Education Center in Bristol, January 19, 10 – 2. Click here to volunteer to do crafts with children on Monday.
RI School of Design (RISD) has planned MLK Jr. events in Providence. Day of Service, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, 35 Camp St., RISD and the Mt. Hope Learning Center partner to celebrate King’s teaching by inspiring children to reach their full potential through the arts, crafts and special activities. 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Click here for details.
Greater Boston
I also wanted to check on what Kids4Peace Boston was doing because I know they are into service. Youth from the interfaith organization are volunteering on MLK Jr. Day at Solutions at Work. Matt says, “Approximately 12 of our teens will be helping to revitalize the space at Solutions at Work, which works to end homelessness in the Boston area.” Click here for some of the nonprofit’s other MLK Jr. service options.
Next year I hope to reach more nonprofits to give them — and the idea of a service day — publicity.
Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
Martin Luther King Jr., Washington DC
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged audubon, boston, bristol, holiday, homeless, kids for peace, martin luther king, postaday, providence college, Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, ribhs, risd, selma, service, service project, solutions at work, volunteer, woonsocket | Leave a Comment »
January 14, 2015 by suzannesmom
Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is well known as a hub for entrepreneurship. So the school was the logical place to help start-ups offering farmers distribution services, marketing, and the like learn how to grow their business. A training was held at Babson at the end of December, and the New York Times covered it.
Stephanie Strom writes, “In spite of the surging demand for locally and regionally grown foods over the last few years, there is a chasm separating small and midsize farmers from their local markets.
“But a growing number of small businesses are springing up to provide local farmers and their customers with marketing, transportation, logistics and other services, like the Fresh Connection, a trucking business providing services to help farms around New York City make deliveries. …
“The Fair Food Network, a nonprofit organized to improve access to better food, recently held a second ‘business boot camp’ in Wellesley, Mass., for tiny companies working to increase ties between communities and local farmers, which culminated in a contest to win some $10,000. …
“For farmers selling products to a number of customers, there are so-called food hubs like Red Tomato, which connects its network of farms to existing wholesale distribution systems to make deliveries of locally grown fruits and vegetables to groceries, produce distributors, restaurants and schools in the Northeast. …
“Not all ways of improving consumer access to local and regional farm production involve distribution, however. Blue Ox Malthouse, for instance, is making malt from barley grown in Maine as a cover crop. Normally, farmers plow barley under or sell it cheaply for animal feed. Blue Ox has given them a new and more lucrative market, though, buying up barley and turning it into malt in hopes of selling it to Maine’s thriving craft beer businesses. …
“It’s good for the farmers, who get a better price for a product they often just plowed under, and it’s good for the craft beer business, where brewers are always looking for points of distinction,” [founder Joel] Alex said.”
Read about some other great services for small farms here.
Photo: Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Mark Jaffe of the Fresh Connection picks up fresh eggs from a farmer’s stand in Union Square, Manhattan. He will make deliveries to restaurants and groceries.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged babson, cassandra campbell, catering, entrepreneur, fair food network, farmers, food access, fresh connection, fresh food generation, insecurity, michael appleton, postaday, roxbury, start-up, Stephanie Strom | 2 Comments »
January 13, 2015 by suzannesmom
Recently, I read an article explaining why beautiful music is often heard flowing from a particular soup kitchen in New York City.
Michael Wilson wrote at the New York Times, “The church’s soup kitchen program fills quickly, bringing a din of chitchat and the scraping of chairs on floor tiles and the thud of trays being knocked against the inside of a trash can. But above it all, each and every weekday, hovers another sound, wholly unexpected: the clear, clean notes of a concert grand piano, there in a far corner. …
“The man at the piano, 61 years old, with a head of cropped gray hair bobbing in time over the keys, plays on, for two hours straight, as anonymous an entertainer as one is likely to find in this town.
“His name is Scott Croly. His most recent job was driving a truck, and that was a while ago. He is just on the roof-over-head side of homelessness, staying at a girlfriend’s house while he looks for work. Suffice it to say that when he first started visiting the soup kitchen some 13 years ago, it was not because they had a piano.”
The piano program, writes Wilson, “started with a former naval cryptographer on the Upper West Side, George Van Pelt, 90, who served in World War II and Korea and, along the way, taught himself to play the piano. He was visiting a friend who helped run a soup kitchen in San Francisco, and pitched in himself, chopping vegetables while a woman banged away at a piano. But the people there enjoyed it. She moved away, and he thought he could do better, and did, and after performing there many times, came back to New York with that old familiar bug bite. Mr. Van Pelt figured, rightly, that soup kitchens weren’t turning away pianists, and he heard about the Church of the Holy Apostles. ‘I gave them a hundred bucks to bribe them to let me play,’ he said. …
“Barry Weiss, a member of the Peace of Heart Choir and a pianist out of the American Songbook, plays on Fridays. A classically trained Armenian pianist, Jeannette Chirikdjian, plays on Mondays after several years of serving food at the lunches.
“ ‘It makes them happy,’ she said matter-of-factly before launching into Chopin’s ‘Grande Valse Brillante.’ ”
Read more at the Times. And watch the Stephen Farrell video interview with one of the piano players here.
Photo: Andrew Renneisen for The New York Times.
The Holy Apostles soup kitchen in New York has a grand piano.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Andrew Renneisen, Barry Weiss, concert, George Van Pelt, homeless, Jeannette Chirikdjian, michael wilson, new york, piano, postaday, Scott Croly, soup kitchen, Stephen Farrell | Leave a Comment »
January 12, 2015 by suzannesmom
The concept of paying it forward has been flourishing in Naples, at least with regard to buying a cup of coffee for someone who can’t afford one.
Recently, reporter Gaia Pianigiani interviewed Neapolitans about the “suspended coffee“ practice. Coffee shop customer Laura Cozzolino explained, “ ‘As a Neapolitan who tries to restrict herself to four coffees a day, I understand that coffee is important. It’s a small treat that no one should miss.’
“The suspended coffee is a Neapolitan tradition that boomed during World War II and has found a revival in recent years during hard economic times.
“From Naples, by word of mouth and via the Internet, the gesture has spread throughout Italy and around the world, to coffee bars as far-flung as Sweden and Brazil. In some places in Italy, the generosity now extends to the suspended pizza or sandwich, or even books. …
“In a time of hardship, Italians can lack many things, but their coffee is not one of them. So it may be the most common item left at many cafes, as a gift, for people too poor to pay.”
More at the NY Times.
Photo: Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times
Receipts are left to be claimed by those who are unable to afford a cup of coffee.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brazil, coffee, Gaia Pianigiani, Gianni Cipriano, italy, Laura Cozzolino, naples, pay it forward, postaday, sweden, ww II | 1 Comment »
January 11, 2015 by suzannesmom
Photo: AllAboutBirds.org
Not being ashamed to admit that I’m one of the birdwatchers in the family — and being attached to all things Rhode Island — I was concerned to read about the disappearance of the herons that used to frequent Rose Island.
According to the Associated Press, “No one is quite sure why the herons have disappeared from Rhode Island’s Rose Island, but one group wants them back. The Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation has started a $100,000 campaign to restore the habitat for herons and other shoreline birds on the 17-acre island in Narragansett Bay. The executive director of the foundation, David McCurdy, told the Newport Daily News that there were about 300 pairs of herons laying eggs on the island a decade ago, but now there are none. Some experts believe the disappearance has to do with the impact of humans, but others say it could be changes in the food supply or an overgrowth of brush on the island. The foundation plans to clear out specific areas and plant cedar trees to attract the birds.”
Read more at the website for the Rose Island Lighthouse, which, by the way, is an operating lighthouse where you can spend a night or a week if you want to investigate the heron situation yourself. Here’s what the lighthouse website says about overnights:
“not an inn — not a b&b — but an operating lighthouse where you can become the keeper. you have two options.
“1. stay over night in the museum on the 1st floor or
“2. become keeper for a week or a night and stay on the 2nd floor”
On second thought, you may not have time to investigate the heron situation.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged AllAboutBirds.org, birdwatcher, David McCurdy, eggs, foundation, heron, lighthouse, naragansett bay, postaday, rhode island, rose island | Leave a Comment »
January 10, 2015 by suzannesmom
Ever hear of a living thing that has been growing for 3,000 years? Check the picture below. Or how about a 13,000-year-old eucalyptus tree?
At Brain Pickings. Maria Popova writes, “For nearly a decade, Brooklyn-based artist, photographer, and Guggenheim Fellow Rachel Sussman has been traveling the globe to discover and document its oldest organisms — living things over 2,000 years of age.
“Her breathtaking photographs and illuminating essays are now collected in The Oldest Living Things in the World … beautiful and powerful work at the intersection of fine art, science, and philosophy, spanning seven continents and exploring issues of deep time, permanence and impermanence, and the interconnectedness of life.”
Sussman tells Popova in an interview, “I’ve always considered myself an environmentalist, for whatever that term means, and it’s something that I think, as an artist, was an interesting thing — because for a long time, I don’t think it was particularly acceptable in the fine art world to be doing work about nature. …
“The problem of climate change is so pressing and actually is something of a moral imperative for us all, and I think artists do a tremendous job of engaging the public on different levels … . That’s one of the beauties of being able, as a creative person, to create the parameters of what you want to talk about. The science and the climate science are a very important component of the overall project. …
“The question has been this idea of making portraits of these organisms and thinking of them as individuals. I think one of the most important things to do when dealing with climate science and climate change is to create a personal connection, and to create some relationship. That was my way of trying to forge a relationship to these organisms.” More here.
Llareta, 3,000 years old, Atacam desert, Chile
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged artist, brain pickings, climate change, environmental, guggenheim fellow, maria popova, oldest living things, photographer, postaday, rachel sussman | Leave a Comment »
January 9, 2015 by suzannesmom
Jordan Teicher at National Public Radio reports that Icelanders really love their books.
“Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world,” writes Teicher, “with five titles published for every 1,000 Icelanders. But what’s really unusual is the timing: Historically, a majority of books in Iceland are sold from late September to early November. It’s a national tradition, and it has a name: Jolabokaflod, or the ‘Christmas Book Flood.’ …
“Iceland has a long literary history dating to medieval times. Landmarks of world literature, including the Sagas of the Icelanders and the Poetic Edda, are still widely read and translated there, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. …
” ‘Generally fiction and biographies would be the mainstays, although it varies a lot,’ [book researcher Baldur] Bjarnason says. Two years ago one of the surprise best-sellers was a pictorial overview of the history of tractors in Iceland.’ …
“The Book Flood tradition, according to The Reykjavik Grapevine‘s Hildur Knutsdottir, dates to World War II, when strict currency restrictions limited the amount of imported giftware in Iceland.
” ‘The restrictions on imported paper were more lenient than on other products, so the book emerged as the Christmas present of choice. And Icelanders have honored the tradition ever since,’ Knutsdottir writes. …
“The book in Iceland is such an enormous gift, you give a physical book. You don’t give e-books here,” [Bryndís Loftsdottir of the book chain Penninn-Eymundsson] says.”
More at NPR, here.
Turning briefly to the UK, here’s a columnist who believes in books. She aims to solve any personal problem you send her by recommending a book.
My own advice? Reread another Dickens.
Photo: BryndÃs Loftsdottir
Browsing at an Icelandic book chain.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Baldur Bjarnason, book flood, books, BryndÃs Loftsdottir, Bryndís Loftsdottir, christmas, happiness, Hildur Knutsdottir, iceland, Jolabokaflod, jordan teicher, postaday, reading, Sagas of the Icelander, the Poetic Edda | Leave a Comment »
January 8, 2015 by suzannesmom
A Framingham, Mass., couple who run a restaurant have decided to do their bit to combat hunger in their town.
Bella English has the story at the Boston Globe. “The Foodie Cafe is a 24-seater in a factory-and-warehouse section of Framingham. Workers stop in for coffee and eggs or for a lunch of homemade soups and breads, artisan sandwiches, and cupcakes with killer icing.
“But David and Alicia Blais, who own and run it, feed more than just their paying customers. They also aim to feed all of the city’s hungry. A chalkboard in the cafe proclaims: ‘Thanks to you (our wonderful customers), we have fed over 890 people in need this November. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!’
“About three years ago, the couple opened the Foodie Cafe — they loved its huge kitchen — after selling a Walpole restaurant they had run for several years. …
” ‘There was no sense of food insecurity in Walpole on the scale found in Framingham,’’ says Alicia, 55. “All you have to do is drive around, and you can see the need. …’
“Devout Christians, the couple went to hear a pastor speak about his street ministry and when he mentioned that he always runs out of sandwiches for the hungry, they decided to help. …
“ ‘They’ve been tremendous to us,’ says Jim Bauchman, founder of Framingham Street Ministries. “I can’t thank them enough. I see it as a partnership.” …
“For them, feeding the hungry is a matter of philosophy and faith. ‘I feel that people should have the necessities of life,’ says Alicia. ‘People should be sheltered. People should have food. We have a restaurant. We make food. It’s not rocket science.’ ”
More here.
Photo: Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff
Inside Alicia Blais assembles sandwiches.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alicia blais, bella english, food insecurity, Framingham, framingham street ministries, hunger, jim bauchman, low-income, poor, postaday, poverty, Suzanne Kreiter | Leave a Comment »
January 7, 2015 by suzannesmom
Renée’s Christmas letter said she sometimes got children’s book ideas from this blog, which inspires me to increase my effort in that department.
Maria Popova’s extraordinary Brain Pickings website is a great source for children’s book recommendations, and I love that she often makes her finds in libraries.
Recently she described a sweet book called The Jacket, about a little girl who falls in love with a book.
Popova begins, ” ‘A book is a heart that only beats in the chest of another,’ Rebecca Solnit wrote in her sublime meditation on reading. But how that transplant happens is a matter wholly subjective and deeply mysterious. In the unusual, wonderful, and magically meta picture-book The Jacket (public library | IndieBound), writer Kirsten Hall and illustrator Dasha Tolstikova explore the beauty and terror of falling in love with a book from the perspective of the book itself. …
“ ‘Book was a book that had just about everything,’ the story begins. ‘He was solid and strong. His words were smart and playful. The problem was, Book didn’t feel special.’
“Book does want to be noticed … And then, one day, it happens. A little girl walks into the bookstore and falls in love with Book.”
But Book has to compete with the little girl’s dog for her affection. One day at a picnic, the dog accidentally splatters Book with mud.
“That night, her mother helps clean Book up, but the girl is ‘too sad and gloomy’ to read. … But when the girl opens her eyes in the morning, ‘something had changed.’
“She has a plan. With quiet excitement and optimism, she sits down at her desk with some art supplies as [her dog] and Book wonder what she’s working on.
“And then, the reveal: a colorful handmade jacket for Book, which she wraps around him as she beams a smile.” You learn how to make a jacket for your own book.
I love that after the girl sleeps on her problem, she wakes up with a solution, a feeling that she can do something about this. Strangely perhaps, my associations are to the Prodigal Son (“And when he came to himself, he said …”) and the ancient Greeks (“A dream came and stood at her head and said …”).
More at Brain Pickings, including lots of pictures.
Art: Dasha Tolstikova
Maria Popova says, “The Jacket comes from Brooklyn-based Enchanted Lion Books, by far the most intelligent and imaginative picture-book publisher today.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brain pickings, children's books, Dasha Tolstikova, enchanted lion, kristen hall, maria popova, postaday, reading, the jacket | Leave a Comment »
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