Archive for February 2018

My cello and 'the wild joy of strumming'

My cello and 'the wild joy of strumming'
“Those who painfully and with bleeding feet have scaled the crags of mastery over musical instruments have yet their loss in this — that the wild joy of strumming has become a vanished sense.” — Kenneth Grahame (1959-1932) in “The Golden Age. A Harvesting” Kenneth Grahame, whose biggest fame still comes from his book “The... Read more »
By Margaret H. Laing,
February 27, 2018 at 6:25 pm
• 9 comments

Does that 'Star-Spangled Banner' get sung? Does anything, NBC?

Does that 'Star-Spangled Banner' get sung? Does anything, NBC?
One of my favorite parts of the Winter Olympics is the medal ceremonies. Nothing  in my mind will top the ceremony on Feb. 24, 1980, when the whole men’s hockey team from “U-S-A” got to crowd up onto the gold medal platform with its great captain, Mike Eruzione. (Happy anniversary, gentlemen, and thank you.) But that... Read more »
By Margaret H. Laing,
February 24, 2018 at 7:20 am
• 8 comments

A surge of interest: a gadget called a serger

A surge of interest: a gadget called a serger
I learn a lot from reading Chicago Now’s Quilting Sewing Creating: a Modern Traditionalist’s Quilting Blog. Writer Kathy Mathews provides a fascinating mix of how-to columns, profiles of artists, and tales of her adventures in creativity. I’ve had a surge in attention to her posts lately as she keeps mentioning something new, a serger. This... Read more »
By Margaret H. Laing,
February 17, 2018 at 1:18 pm
• 10 comments
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Walking in sunshine: Love, winter and Alexander McCall Smith

Walking in sunshine: Love, winter and Alexander McCall Smith
One of the joys of the books of Alexander McCall Smith is their quirky titles: In just one series, named after its first book “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” Smith has additional titles ranging from “Tears of the Giraffe” to “The Full Cupboard of Life” and a place I wish I could visit, “The... Read more »
By Margaret H. Laing,
February 16, 2018 at 3:54 pm
• 4 comments

So the Winter Olympics are on tape delay? Great!

So the Winter Olympics are on tape delay? Great!
As anyone around me knows quickly in the winter, I enjoy winter sports. So you are correct if you think I’ll be watching the Winter Olympics from South Korea with great interest. But I won’t be upset that I can’t watch them “live as they happen.” Recorded — tape delay, as I grew up hearing... Read more »
By Margaret H. Laing,
February 10, 2018 at 4:05 pm
• 8 comments

Beware the Imp of Autocorrect

Beware the Imp of Autocorrect
Sorry I’ve been away for a while. Apart from having to be busy with other things, I’ve written a couple of things that ran aground. It’s not that you wouldn’t have liked them — I didn’t, so I didn’t let them out. Maybe later. I discovered part of the reason I was having trouble with... Read more »
By Margaret H. Laing,
February 5, 2018 at 2:59 pm
• 8 comments
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