Author's posts

International Book Giving Day

  Some of you may know that I’m involved in Little Free Library (LFL) and is a library on my street under the auspices of the O’Connor Music Studio. When our son is home for a visit, we always go out on a hiking trail with the dog, Mimi, and sometimes my mom.  On one …

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Happy Valentine’s Day

  Have a special day today!        

Happy Chinese New Year!

  Our wonderful daughter-in-law is Chinese, so we are celebrating, too. This is the Year of the Ox.  The Ox (牛) is the second of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, and also appears in related calendar systems.  Countries that observe Lunar New Year often offer three to seven days of …

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Washington Pipe Band Plays For Sean Connery

Washington Pipe Band Plays For Sean Connery from Toby Dodd on Vimeo.   This video just came up on my Facebook feed this morning but I hadn’t seen it before.  Even though Washington is misspelled, this is still a fantastic performance for Sean Connery in 1999.     Sean Connery was honored at the Kennedy …

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Happy Anniversary, 2021!

Another anniversary rolls around, the 48th, to be exact.   I always like to check out this picture of our wedding expenses.  We have it framed and sitting on our mantle. Tom paid $50.46 (blood tests and wedding ring!) and my costs (I made my own dress) were $29.25. We were lucky.  My dad was …

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Fun with Palindromes

  Happy Palindrome Day! For 10 consecutive days, from 1-20-21 to 1-29-21, the date is read the same forwards and backwards in the month-day-year format. Today, 1-20-21, is the first palindrome-number Inauguration Day in American history!  

Yummy! National Shortbread Day!

Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert  traditionally made with: 1 part white sugar (I use powdered) 2 parts butter 3 parts flour (I usually use rice flour) And a bit of salt Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture which is caused by its high-fat content, provided by the butter.   “Shortening” is …

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From Scotland: The First Foot

  In Scottish folklore, the first-foot is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year’s Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. Although it is acceptable in many places for the first-footer to be a resident of the house, they must not be in the house at …

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Hogmanay Fireballs!

  Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year (Gregorian calendar) in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year’s Day (1 January) or, in some cases, 2 January—a Scottish bank holiday. The …

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Lockerbie

  The Lockerbie Cairn, through its 270 blocks of red Scottish sandstone, memorializes the 270 lives lost in the terrorist attack on the United States when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is a gift of the people of Scotland to the people of the United States, financed …

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