Quiddity

Quiddity is now 10!

I am immensely proud to say that I have now been blogging for 10 years.  Ten freaking years!  I was planning on making a huge post on the topic, but I don't know what to say.  I guess all I have to really say is thank you to all of the readers who have stayed with me over the years.

Hiring others to teach your kid to write

Here's an interesting NYT article about how affluent parents in New York are hiring occupational therapists to help their kids with their handwriting.

“ in the last five years, I’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of kids who don’t have the strength in their hands to wield a scissors or do arts and crafts projects, which in turn prepares them for writing.”

Many kindergartners in his community, he said, have taken music appreciation classes or participated in adult-led sports teams or yoga. And most have also logged serious time in front of a television or a computer screen. But very few have had unlimited opportunities to run, jump and skip, or make mud pies and break twigs. “I’m all for academic rigor,” he said, “but these days I tell parents that letting their child mold clay, play in the sand or build with Play-Doh builds important school-readiness skills, too.”

Blame NCLB.  There's no time to teach handwriting or how to use scissors because of testing and getting kids ready to take those tests.  Coloring and finger-painting is frowned upon as well.  Most of the kids in my kindergarten class really struggle with their fine motor skills because they don't have crayons, Play-Doh, or kid scissors at home.  (It shocked me to discover that quite a few kids in my class had NO IDEA what Play-Doh was or how to play with it.)

Sitting & Spitting

Here's a great Time article from 1949 about the battle to remove a bench where old men liked to sit and spit during the day.  Apparently, some local housewives were really grossed out by this.

It came to the mayor of Whitney, Frank Basham, to appease “a delegation of local housewives” who were fed up with the old men, and wanted the “unsightly bench” gone.  It was probably a lot more than the bench, as the quote above by Mrs. T.E. Bagley contends:  They ain’t died fast enough, these old men!”.  Perhaps a dozen old farmers/ranchers/cowboys sitting on a bench all day long spitting and watching the world go by wasn’t the most attractive thing for downtown Whitney. “Why, they must spit two or three gallons a day!

The article also features some great photos.  Looks like the bench is still there.

Link via boingboing.

You know what day it is!

Here's a video of David Bowie singing Tonight live with Tina Turner in 1984. That dress Tina is wearing is hot, hot, HOT! And I'm not sure what is up with the close-up shots of the sax player's pelvic thrusts, but be warned.

Oprah's chocolate set

Behold!  Oprah has magically turned her set into chocolate.  You go, girl!

The entire set of her talk show today was edible -- and made of chocolate. Chocolate seats, chocolate tables, a chocolate chess set, a chocolate grandfather clock, chocolate wall coverings, chocolate flowers in a chocolate vase ... on and on. The set, created by Larry Abel, even includes a chocolate fireplace.

Link via tvtattle.

Growing Pains Actor is missing

Boner from Growing Pains is missing.  Yeah, you read that right.

Link via freakgirl.

Have you all gone mad?!

Images of paintings, sketchings, and engravings of people who have clearly snapped.

Link via boingboing.

The loves of Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini said she had to go into therapy after breaking up with director David Lynch (you don't say).  She also claims that he was the love of her life.

"David was the big love of my life.  And I believed that he loved me the same way, but obviously I was mistaken. All my instincts told me we were a happy couple, but we weren't."

She used to be married to Martin Scorsese.

"The mentality [then] was you married an interesting man, because an interesting man would provide you with an interesting life. Marty, for sure, is the perfect husband for that. He's an absolute genius. Fantastic mind. Great sense of humor, great sense of adventure. You could live just as Marty's wife and have a fantastic life. But, I was too naive and old-fashioned for Marty as a wife. I wasn't used to the roughness of American lifestyle. I wasn't used to street life, to rock 'n' roll. I was the naive girl from Europe, so it couldn't have lasted."

 

She dated Gary Oldman, which I'm sure was no picnic either.

And she dated Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Monkeys on Ice

Video clips of monkeys on ice.  Um, yeah.

Link via traveler's diagram.

Questions children ask

Medical illustrations from a science book for children titled Questions Children Ask.

Thank God for David Bowie Wednesday!

Check out David Bowie rocking out with Cher back in 1975. Too much fierceness!