tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:45:00 +0000non-fictionpleasuresphotosnaturehistorypoliticsdiarygardennovelBarack ObamafictionIslamTudor calendarAmerican photographsmarriagewritingStar Trek"creative non-fiction"booksmoviessketcheslearning to love wintertelevisioncommonplace bookfree speechIraqRead over your compositions, and when you meet anything you think particularly fine, strike it out. Samuel Johnsonhttp://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Nancy)Blogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-439700510835579305Tue, 08 Jul 2025 22:24:00 +00002025-07-08T15:24:34.711-07:00 https://www.amazon.com/Song-Explanation-Bixby-Diaries-2020-2021/dp/B0FGV9H3BD?ref_=ast_author_dphttp://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2025/07/this-is-latest-are-there-really-4k-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-8795611948516277689Thu, 02 May 2024 13:49:00 +00002024-05-04T05:56:03.643-07:00 You can find it at Amazon, $14.99. I went through the blog and picked and polished what seemed the better posts. A lot of useless old political stuff ended up on the cutting room floor where it belongs. http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2024/05/i-kid-you-not.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-5447563706122412817Sat, 07 Aug 2021 13:18:00 +00002021-08-07T06:18:40.055-07:00 Apologies to those who took the trouble to comment over the last two years (!). Just looked at them now. But thank you. My Pond's cold cream sagahttp://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2021/08/again-with-ponds-cold-cream-saga.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-5075906470375902615Sun, 25 Feb 2018 17:37:00 +00002018-02-25T09:37:32.393-08:00 Wow, friends, thanks again for all those page views which are still huge for me. And comments! Four, dating from as long ago as last May! I am sorry I have neglected them. I now use just a bit of fresh lemon juice and a bit of olive oil, mixed in the palm of my hand, to cleanse my skin at night. I towel it off with a wet cloth. Amazing and humbling that this is the most successful thing I havehttp://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2018/02/again-with-all-page-views-its-ponds.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-5783850716458339088Sat, 11 Oct 2014 12:48:00 +00002016-07-30T20:15:48.025-07:00booksnovelpleasureswriting Updated July, 2016. And come visit me at Pluot, where I have decided to do my part in re-booting Western civilization from the ground up.  Well, who knew that I get 1,100 people coming here every month? Perhaps it's all just search engine "dings" -- does that still happen? -- or perhaps it's people who come for ten seconds and leave because they're disappointed. I used to have a http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2014/10/wow-people-thanks-for-all-page-views.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-2496032632267437151Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:34:00 +00002014-01-19T10:37:31.832-08:00writing -- where I am, chances are it's here. Do drop by,  and have a pisco sour maybe. http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-case-youre-wondering.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-8267454451128476095Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:55:00 +00002011-10-24T14:55:23.434-07:00gardennaturephotospleasures I bought the rose bush at a grocery store one spring, perhaps seven or eight years ago. I planted it and then it bloomed once, also in a far away October. Perhaps this new bloom is a good sign. The colors of pale rich yellow and palest pink are gorgeous; the scent, a bit like lemon pie and a bit like lemon air freshener, is also very good. Happy autumn. http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/10/last-rose-of-summer-really.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-8067164874973934562Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:12:00 +00002011-10-27T05:10:38.038-07:00naturephotospleasures http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-3048799129698166088Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:02:00 +00002011-09-25T08:02:37.344-07:00non-fiction"I asked if I might go out for a breath of fresh air. The doctors answered 'Yes, just close by, for half an hour.' " So Queen Victoria, at the bedside of her adored husband, in December 1861. He was dying. She needed a respite from it all. Why is it, given the collective human experience of death, that the individual human brain is not yet "hard wired" to understand it? "None of this makes http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/from-whose-bourn.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-1483290605420386753Sun, 11 Sep 2011 14:08:00 +00002011-09-11T07:08:21.269-07:00Barack ObamahistoryIslampolitics "... Islamists decide whether violent jihad should be launched against non-Muslims based on a cost-benefit analysis, not on any conviction that killing non-Muslims is immoral." Shall we have the New York police department refrain from investigating Muslim terrorism because the Obama justice department says that's insensitive? Read it all. Of Mafiosi and Mullahs - Andrew C. McCarthy http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/09/days-reading.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-5988834193622360435Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:16:00 +00002011-08-16T05:16:08.370-07:00gardennaturephotospleasures http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-evolution-really-works.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-6975863174718017927Mon, 15 Aug 2011 01:48:00 +00002011-08-14T18:48:42.194-07:00naturephotospleasures http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/clouds-and-ducks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-6865932012595350622Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:31:00 +00002013-03-20T18:30:35.938-07:00pleasuresStar Trek And this is, sort of, what it looks like. A blur of people, and storm troopers, and a few too many very obese young men. "Gamers," I'm told. Thousands of artworks for sale, most of them on pirated themes which I am sure Disney, DC, or Marvel could sue about, only it's not worth their while to pursue small-bore artistic license and capitalism run amok. Much of the art very, very good -- which http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-is-comic-book-convention.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-2364933674266622474Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:16:00 +00002011-08-08T15:16:08.320-07:00diaryphotospleasuresMake-up blogs. And make-up application and hair care tutorials on YouTube. Seriously. That's my guilty pleasure. I grew up in the '70s, when everybody was natural and free to be you 'n' me, and we all wore burlap blouses -- or thought we admired Joan Baez for wearing burlap blouses -- and considered make-up and other female fussiness shallow and unworthy.&http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/guilty-pleasure-highbred-surprise.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-5960210341176241076Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:00:00 +00002011-08-06T14:09:31.844-07:00historyIslampolitics"A terrible day," according to Commentary's blog. Tantamount to the arrival of the Visigoths outside Rome, circa 408 A.D., according to the always humorously snarky and depressed Mark Steyn. (They share the classical references, but Steyn is quite unlike the more intellectual, but never humorous and always depressed Victor Davis Hanson.) Both -- all -- are talking about Standard & Poor's&nbsphttp://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/08/ill-weigh-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-642788873930590224Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:32:00 +00002011-07-31T08:59:04.110-07:00gardennaturephotospleasuresI'm reminded of the Peter Pan song "I won't grow up," in which the eternal child laments that adults still wear "a serious expression -- in the middle of July!" He has a point. This is July. http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/07/blog-post.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-2048969259430980910Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:44:00 +00002011-07-17T19:45:37.391-07:00gardennaturephotospleasures... and morning ... ... and evening. The star of these photos is my Queen of the Prairie plant, the tall pink frothy thing, which is the pride and joy of my Pathetic Little Garden. It has had a rough time this year, having been nearly choked by another plant which I hoped would be pretty, but which I finally uprooted because it was ruining the Queen. A hummingbird actually hollered at me http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/07/pink-and-green.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-8825920743694396492Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:34:00 +00002011-10-27T05:19:28.832-07:00historymarriagephotospleasuresThe little "Field trip! Springfield" seems to have been, in hindsight, a sort of severance package for the end of a marriage. He wanted a room with a relaxing Jacuzzi. A month later, he wanted to leave. As we say in the vernacular, who knew? Lincoln's tomb: note the young boys' faces, present in all the sculpture groups around the monument. We still sometimes call soldiers "boys," but in the http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/07/springfield-lincolns-tomb.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-6127790743368008126Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:02:00 +00002011-07-11T08:06:08.269-07:00non-fictionphotospleasuresA rather lowering day at Indiana Dunes State Park, all high hazy clouds and cool, damp winds. The soft sunlight on the pebbles made them gleam as if they were in moonlight -- I suppose. I've never seen the beach at night. Below, a native plant up on the dunes. Milkweed, I think. I have the same in my garden. And below, the dunes. The lake's waters reached this far -- and much farther -- in http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/07/field-trip-beach.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-5126561207941571281Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:49:00 +00002011-07-11T14:19:55.170-07:00gardennaturephotospleasures http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/06/summer-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-4414390020192629666Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:18:00 +00002011-10-27T05:19:28.832-07:00diarymarriagepleasuresThere are certain situations in life that call for the purchase of new, bright pink bedsheets. Like after he leaves. It's not a celebratory thing. You just want something new on the bed. Then it rains. Again. Then the sun comes out. Might there be a rainbow? You rush to take a picture. So does he. The door to the upstairs apartment slams. http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/06/its-raining-sheets.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-602319575273678130Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:28:00 +00002011-10-27T05:17:11.526-07:00diarymarriageWhy is it that now, of all times, people seem to come at me with gems like this? -- "That Skinny Girl margarita. Did you know Bethenny Frankel sold the rights to that drink mix to some big company for millions of dollars? ... And her dad left her and her mom when she was, like, three. She never forgave him for it. " "No, I can see why."  "Can you imagine doing that? The guy must have http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-now.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-6631181789321083473Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:34:00 +00002011-06-12T06:34:32.945-07:00gardennaturephotospleasures And -- of course, this is wildly off topic, but have you noticed? -- how much conservative pundits (mostly men) dislike Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann? I almost think that, having spent their careers commenting on and observing politics, and growing gray and weak-eyed in the process, they really resent their thunder and their punditry and their relevance being stolen by moms with long brown http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/06/more-in-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-3984520343214497631Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:13:00 +00002011-06-07T18:13:31.422-07:00gardennaturephotospleasures http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/06/flowers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1078093068688821925.post-1845905413618996247Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:57:00 +00002011-10-27T05:19:28.833-07:00marriagenaturephotospleasures Most of it is a feast of green, in the bright slanting evening sun. But below, first, are last month's bleeding hearts. Asiatic lilies wait to bud, crowded in beside bearded iris, cranesbill, and a mass of goldenrod. The robins chirp and carol away as always, whether in the dim gray mist of early morning or the long, steadily darkening twilights. This big old house with its big old http://bestofluckplacingitelsewhere.blogspot.com/2011/06/mature-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Nancy)0