First up… before any fun begins… I want to give a bit of a reminder to check your voting registration… in PA you have until October 24th to register to vote in the November election AND there is still time to get your mail-in ballot! You will find your state information here! There is so much that is not on the ballot, so who you vote for has never been more important.
No matter who you vote for, the most important thing is that you vote! (and with that I will get off my soap box and return you to your regularly scheduled blog post)
Now how about some excellent RIFFs for this chilly Friday!
Radiant —
A clip of the video below showed up in my Twitter feed one afternoon this week and I just needed more. I thought this might be the perfect way to usher in Friday. Brilliant, joyful, so uplifting and I believe that this was exactly what Mr. Vivaldi was hoping would happen with his music! This week, the Goede Hoop Marimba Band has given me the best “ear worm” ever! I hope you enjoy it as well!
Indigenous (Mapping) —
Steve had the day off on Monday for The Holiday Formerly Known as Columbus Day. In all honesty, I never spent much time thinking about the greatness of Columbus on this day. But recently I have been thinking much more about the silliness of celebrating a day of discovery of a land that was already discovered… and had been for roughly 25,000 years. I had so much fun with this map that NPR shared this week. It shows a well-inhabited North America… and drilling down to my neighborhood, I now know that I live on lands of Osage and Shawnee as well as the ancient tribe of Monongahela Indians.
Fretting (over) —
“Throat-Clearers and Wan-Intensifiers” (I have gifted this very thoroughly enjoyable article from the WaPo for you all)
My library does not contain many books so the fact that I have a copy of Dryer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style should tell you that I thought this book was important and very necessary. Reading his article has reminded me that I am long overdue for a reread.
But… this could have been written for me: “Good writing, I think, ultimately exists between the twin goal posts of as-few-words-as-you-need and as-many-words-as-you-want. I, a natural natterer, lean toward the latterer.”
I am thankful for Dryer’s reminder on my over use of very and actually… at least for the moment! LOL
(and) Finally —
A bit of a vacation blogging schedule notice. Next Thursday (10/20), we head off to my most favored of places on the planet – Mississauga Lands (otherwise known as Presque Isle in Erie, PA) for a bit of a rest and rejuvenation! There will be an Unraveled post on Wednesday (10/26) but that is it. I don’t know how much making and reading I will have accomplished while on vacation, but you never know… I might even surprise myself! Ha!
I will be here as usual next week. On Monday the docent will have a new Museum of Me exhibit, and of course, there will be some Unraveling on Wednesday. I will be closing the week out on Thursday with A Gathering of Poetry installment and I’d like to invite you all to join in with us and share a poem that you might have stumbled across recently. Or share a poem that is near and dear to your heart. Really. The more the merrier… life can never have too little poetry!
And with that I will let you all get on with your day! Happy Friday All!
You must be so excited to be on the brink of vacation! I hope you and Steve have a marvelous time with great weather! And, for the record, our mail in ballots were delivered to us yesterday!
A good RIFF, Kat! 🙂 And good reminders about the voting. . . (I’ll be delivering our ballots to City Hall here over the weekend.) You must be getting so excited about your upcoming vacation! XO
Almost vacation time is so exciting! I love your vacation photos and hope you have a wonderful time. I use grammarly and it’s always correcting my use of very and actually. Sometimes I accept the corrections and then there are times I leave them in when they are actually necessary. Off to read the WaPo article; thank you!
Thanks for sharing that WaPo article. As an editor, I couldn’t agree more. The art of editing, I think, is knowing when it’s appropriate to use those verys and actuallys and when it’s better to use a different word.
I hope you are planning to pack all the woolies for your trip!
In Colorado, our kids never had ‘Columbus Day’ off. (It was so strange to have it off here this year, in NY.) Instead, that second Monday of October is Indigenous Peoples Day. As it should be.
Hope vacation prep is bringing all the joy!! Let me know if you have any new Erie/Presque Isle discoveries!
Yay for a VACATION to look forward to!! Can’t wait to see your photos when you get back.
So much to comment on in this post!
1. Love the marimba Vivaldi! and the happiness of the players! I have a marimba CD I bought when we were in South Africa.
2. I live on Anishinaabe land. We were required to sign a document that we knew that fact when we bought this place.
3. There were still Anishinaabe living around our lake in the early 20th century.
4. I read Dryer’s book a couple years ago — such a wise man!
5. HAVE A GREAT VACATION!
Vivaldi would just love that interpretation I feel sure. I am grinning from ear to ear for sure, thank you. It always makes me smile when some people from the US say that they wish they had a longer history just like Europe does- course they do! Have a fabulous trip, I’m off later on in the Autumn to Cornwall for a few days with my sister in law- there will be lots of chat and knitting for sure!
I appreciate a good 3 day weekend but I’d really like to see the name changed officially to Indigenous People’s Day. MA hasn’t done it yet but there’s a bill before the state reps to do so. Enjoy the last weekend before your vacation!