Hi! There are a few new subscribers here, wow! thank you again for checking out my silly collection of words and phrases here. Hope you are all having a wondrful day!
In #officelife land, it is FRIDAY-the holiest and best day of the week.
Cheers!
Speaking of birthday gifts….May was my birthday month, and I totally intended on publishing a post in May, but didn’t. So here is my “birthday month” post, in the first full week of June.
Favorite things, favorite foods, favorite drinks
I hope that you, like me, get to do some or all of your favorite things when celebrating your birthday. I got to rewatch old movies, go to thrift stores, sleep in a few times, enjoy a fancy dinner out, and celebrate for about 4 days in a row-haha!
My favorite drink was a Pendleton whiskey on the rocks-yum!
One thing that I didn’t get to do was visit a used bookstore or any bookstore-hopefully I’ll be visiting a few in Phoenix next month!
In honor of sharing “favorite things,” here are some of the best vintage books I have collected over the years.
I absolutely love the “Polk Street School” series by Patricia Reilly Giff. I have a vague memory of my 2nd grade teacher reading The Beast in Ms. Rooney’s Room to the class over a few afternoons and I was hooked. Whenever my grandma or mom took us to the library I’d go over to these spinning shelves that held the chapter books in the children’s section-I’d get so excited when I’d find one I hadn’t read before. Anytime I find one of these books in a used bookstore, I gleefully add it to my collection. This one isn’t a first edition (1994) but still “vintage” to me, look at that price, $3.99!
Now for something grown up, since this was my 30—-something, something, something birthday. I love this edition of The Drawing of the Three. It took me a few years to read the complete Dark Tower series; reading from a mix of new paperbacks, library books and this vintage edition. I’d love to get a complete vintage set of these books one day.
“Roland could not understand why anyone would want cocaine or any other illegal drug, for that matter, in a world where such a powerful one as sugar was so plentiful and cheap.”
― Stephen King, The Drawing of the Three
Listening to and reading the As We Eat pod and substack has given me a better appreciation of vintage cookbooks. Not just for their seemingly zany and obscure ingredients and techniques-although those are very entertaining-more for the history, cultural education, and beauty of the writing and work that went into them.
A recent episode about the classic cookbook How to Cook and Eat in Chinese reminded me about this gem-that I have not cooked from yet, but hopefully will by the end of 2023:
Nothing says vintage like $3.95, ;)
This was such a find! 1 I’ve collected a few different editions of many of the Little House series but this is my only Helen Sewell version-the original illustrator. I love finding hard cover editions of books that I have enjoyed in paperbook over and over again.
Other birthday month notes:
Visited another local library branch for the first time-great children’s area (the nephews enjoyed it)
Have been loving frittata breakfasts; Ben made one on the Saturday before my birthday and they have been in our weekday breakfast rotation again and again since then.
Currently consumed by the preparations of a 60th birthday party for my mom and Aunt-twin sisters! It’s been fun, as I love party planning, but a little bit stressful as the big day approaches. Wish me luck on June 24th!
Happy graduation season, and summer vacation season, students and teachers and staff! Wishing us all lots of good food and drinks and some time here and there to rest with a good book or to leisurely browse a good thrift store.
Cheers!
I acknowledge that Laura Ingalls Wilder has a complicated position in the history of American literature, especially children’s literature. I do not agree with or like the use of racist caricatures in some of her books. The “Little House” series as a whole, made such a huge impression on me as a young reader and I read the books, some of them, dozens of times from the time I was about 7 years old until high school. Reading them as an adult is a different experience. I still want to share these books with my nephews in the coming years but with a careful discussion about the problematic and racist portions of the books.
I would definitely feature these beloved books in the future Bookstore/Thriftstore/Bar with the proper context front and center.
This PBS article does a good job of summarizing these complicated feelings, in my opinion.