Happy Halloween

"At the end of the world, on an island alone, lies a city of secrets, mortar and stone."
-The Kingdom Of Witches

Fear, Panic, And Lies 5

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.
 -German Proverb

Fear, Panic, And Lies 4

Fear, Panic, And Lies 3

Fear, Panic, And Lies 2

Fear, Panic, And Lies

"Because of the lack of education on AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and lies surrounded me."
-Ryan White (1971-1990)

Get That Cat Two Pairs Of Air Jordans!

Women- If You Don't Vote, You Don't Matter

"Ten million more women than men voted in the last election. In fact 53% of voters were women. That is not a voting block it's a majority. Women have decided literally every election in our lifetimes, yet, midterm turnout is historically low. LET'S CHANGE THAT!"
-The Department of Peace



"You Don't Own Me" PSA - Upworthy from The Department of Peace on Vimeo.

October’s Poplars Are Flaming Torches Lighting The Way To Winter

 -Nova S. Bair

Not a poplar but still on fire.

My Soul Is In The Sky

Had a friend fly in to attend a family member's memorial service this weekend.  We drove him back to Loveland/Fort Collins Airport on Sunday and got a quick tour of his Cessna 210G Centurion (not shown) and then watched him take-off. I had forgotten how much I love small airports.

Beautiful day to fly. Loveland/Fort Collins Airport.

Again, beautiful day to fly. Loveland/Fort Colllins Airport.

Xtra Airways, a charter airline out of Boise, ID

What Are We Going To Do About The Other Generation?

 How will we ever communicate without communication?
 -The Other Generation from Flower Drum Song

In this month's issue of AARP Bulletin there is an article, Selling Us Short, about how advertising is ignoring, to their detriment, people over 50 in order to focus on the 18 to 34 demographic.

"The 50-plus market that many advertisers ignore or insult is not big: It is enormous.  According to a Nielsen study, by 2017 boomers will control 70 percent of the country's disposable income.  From 2007 to 2010- tough economic times- retirees were on of the few demographic groups to experience stable or rising incomes. Nearly 60 percent of homeowners over 65 are not weighed down by mortgages, compared with just 11 percent of 34- to 44-year-olds. And boomers account for 80 percent of America's luxury travel spending."

The reason why advertisers ignore such a large market?  Ageism and advertising myth.  Ageism is present in an Esuance commercial which shows an older woman who confuses facebook's  wall with her own living room wall.

"Though 28 million people over 55 already subscribe to Facebook  and boomers buy twice as much online as younger adults, according to Forrester Research, cranky, befuddled Beatrice can't fathom social media."

One advertising myth is Brand Loyalty. 

"Ken Dychtwald, CEO of the consulting firm Age Wave, believes many marketers live in the past. Lifetime brand loyalty 'was once a reality, but now it's just a myth, ' he says. Previous generations often selected a brand between the ages of 15 and 25 and never switched. That became the target age for advertisers."

That is no longer true.  Brent Bouchez of Bouchez Page calls boomers "brand-promiscuous."  And a survey done in 2014 showed that most millennial were the same way.

The other advertising myth is that older people are cheap and will not part with their money but the Nielsen study disproved this, "Boomers make the most money and spend what they make."

It will be interesting to see if advertising moves away from its worship of youth before or after 2017 when older people will be too large a market to ignore any longer.

I Just Bought my First Smart Phone

 

That's one small step for a woman, one giant leap in technology.

Two Roads Diverged In A Yellow Wood

I took the one less traveled by
-Robert Frost, American Poet  (1874 - 1963)


I learned of the death of two men this morning-both infamous in their own way. First, David Greenglass (1922-2014), whose false testimony sent his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair in the early 1950s.





Second, Tommy Lewis (1931- 2014), who came off the bench during the 1954 Cotton Bowl to tackle an opposing player and stopping what would have been a 95 yard touchdown run. Although, doing so did not stop the referee from awarding the opposing player credit for the touchdown.




Rest In Peace, Tommy Lewis. Burn in Hell, David Greenglass.

Thought For The Day

I Am Learning To Sew- Terminology

I would guess they do not use this term anymore.

Better Homes & Gardens Sewing Book (1961)

Bobby Baby, Bobby Love!

Happy Birthday to one hell of a fisherman!

Grow Old With Me, The Best Is Yet To Come

These are the Brown sisters, Heather, Mimi, Bebe, and Laurie, in 1979. Bebe's husband, photographer Nicholas Nixon, took the photo and kept taking one photo a year of the sister for the next forty years.
If you go here you will see those photos.   As you click through them you will watch the women grow older, become closer,  less guarded, and more comfortable with themselves.  Striking photos.  Some of them made me cry because they are so honest and the women so open.

All Those Years Ago

My mother, my sister, "Not The Pope", and me. (Long Beach, NY c.1980)

Say Hello To My Little Friend

The neighborhood children have just discovered him and are fascinated by him.

I Am Learning To Sew- Project 7d

One more bag. It's a bit larger than any of the others and I  assembled it by combining the techniques I learned from making

this bag

and this bag.

Garden Bling

A friend makes these and she let me design my own and then glued it together for me.

Light Shadows 20

Light Shadow 19