friday wisdom humor

e-mail etiquette

calendar download

For the free calendar download click here. Print on 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock. Then cut down the middle.

friday humor

fiat commercial

Gucci has joined forces with Fiat to design a special edition of the Fiat 500 mini, in celebration of the car manufacturer's 90th anniversary. The collaboration celebrates those values that the two brands have in common: Italian design, quality and heritage.

A series of five shorts were commissioned from Vogue Italia and Dazed & Confused editor Jefferson Hack, amongst others, by Gucci and Fiat in order to promote their collaboration by sharing their creative vision of the union. "Reverse to Perfection" was shot by Francesco Lorazzini for Vogue Italia, who presented the short for the first time on Monday evening.

friday humor

the cool of hillary

Texting Hillary Clinton

On April 4, the Tumblr Texts from Hillary launched a now-viral political meme of imaginary correspondences to the Secretary of State in her sunglasses.

The original photo that started the meme was taken on October 18, 2011 by Diana Walker at the start of a week long trip through the middle east. In the photo Hillary Clinton checks her PDA, in her sunglasses, upon departure in a military plane from Malta, bound for Tripoli.


These are some of my favorites:

Read the "backstory" here along with more "texts" and photo credits. Also Maureen Dowd's column here.

life in topanga

Yesterday provided a lot of excitement in deer-watching.

Fairly early in the morning I saw two sets of floppy ears peaking out of the grass in the back yard. Thinking I would get some photos of bunnies, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the spot. As I got closer, I saw white spots and knew that in fact these were fawn that the mother had left bedded down while she foraged.

The one on the left was wide awake and watched as I got too close for comfort. He bolted. But he didn't go far. The other one stayed asleep.

The doe wasn't far away. She was just on the edge of the cleaing.

She lay down under a tree for a while. Then got up and left the area, probably in search of better grass.

She stayed gone all day. During this time, I did a good amount of research on the internet to get some insight on what I was witnessing.

It's normal behavior for the doe to leave her fawn in the first month or so. At that early age, the fawn can't keep up with their mother as she forages for food. The fawn lay still in the grass so as not to draw attention to themselves. If a predator does find them, they'll bolt at an amazingly fast speed that can outrun almost any animal. Occasionally they'll get up to stretch but they stay within pretty close proximity to where they were left.

This little guy got hungry and decided to taste some of the plants close to the house.

Just before the sun went behind the hill, around 5 PM, the doe showed up to collect one of the fawn. He was pretty hungry. As he nursed, the doe cleaned him. She then took him back in to the brush.

About an hour and a half later, the doe showed up again to collect the second fawn. She let him nurse for a little bit. Then off they went back into the chaparral.

It's hard to know if this is the same doe we saw on Saturday. Deer stay within a fairly small territory so there's a good chance it is. It's a little unusual that the two fawn aren't together with their mother. Hopefully we'll see them again and can witness some play between the two fawn.

mike wallace : good night

Mike Wallace, ’60 Minutes’ Pioneer, Dies

By BRIAN STELTER

Mike Wallace, a pioneer of American broadcasting who confronted leaders and liars for the newsmagazine “60 Minutes” for four decades, has died, CBS News said Sunday morning. He was 93.

His death was announced on CBS. Bob Scheiffer, the host of “Face the Nation,” said that Mr. Wallace died on Saturday night in New Haven, Connecticut. “His family was with him,” Mr. Scheiffer said.

Mr. Wallace had been ill for several years.

As one of the original correspondents and hosts of “60 Minutes,” which was started in 1968, Mr. Wallace helped to establish the television newsmagazine format. “60 Minutes” is now the most popular such program on American television.

Mr. Wallace was perhaps best known for ambush interviews of crooks and cheats. Mr. Wallace “invented a new paradigm for television news, creating a signature technique that would become a standard in the industry,” the biographer Peter Rader writes in a new book, “Mike Wallace: A Life.”

In an essay for CBS News, Morley Safer, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, recounted his colleague’s career thusly:

Wallace took to heart the old reporter’s pledge to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. He characterized himself as “nosy and insistent.”

So insistent, there were very few 20th century icons who didn’t submit to a Mike Wallace interview. He lectured Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, on corruption. He lectured Yassir Arafat on violence.

He asked the Ayatollah Khoumeini if he were crazy.

He traveled with Martin Luther King (whom Wallace called his hero). He grappled with Louis Farrakhan.

And he interviewed Malcolm X shortly before his assassination.

Mr. Wallace entered semi-retirement in 2006, but returned to “60 Minutes” for interviews with Mitt Romney, Jack Kevorkian and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He last appeared on “60 Minutes” in January 2008, when he had an exclusive interview with Roger Clemens, a baseball legend who had been accused of steroid use.

In interviews after he retired, Mr. Wallace said he would want his epigraph to read, “Tough But Fair.”

life in topanga

We saw these two early Saturday morning. This is probably the doe's first fawn since she only has one. Older does usually give birth to twins and when conditions are really good, triplets. The fawn is somewhere around 1 - 2 months old since it's able to follow along with it's mother. At 3 months, they start to lose their spots as they take on the colors of an adult deer.

They hung around for awhile, just on the edge of the clearing. The doe lay down while the fawn nursed.


And then they slipped back into the underbrush.

friday wisdom

to kill a mocking bird on usa network

USA Network will be presenting To Kill a Mockingbird on Saturday April 7 for a special limited-commercial screening, featuring an introduction from President Obama.

Check your local listings.

to kill a mocking bird - 50 years on

This is the 50th anniversary of the release of To Kill a Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck. It is the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in the Depression-era South, who defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge, and his kids against prejudice.


The film's producer, Alan J. Pakula, remembered Paramount Studios executives questioning him about a potential script: "They said, 'What story do you plan to tell for the film?' I said, 'Have you read the book?' They said, 'Yes.' I said, 'That's the story.'" The movie was a hit at the box office, making more than $20 million, against a $2 million budget. It won three Oscars: Best Actor for Gregory Peck, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for Horton Foote. It was nominated for five more Oscars including Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Mary Badham, the actress who played Scout.

Film producer Alan J. Pakula with Harper Lee

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch

The novel, by first-time writer Harper Lee, was published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when Harper Lee was 10 years old.

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."

Mockingbird was Harper's Lee's only book. It’s never been out of print, and has long been a staple of high school English classes. On at least one list of top-whatever books, it’s ranked #1. The novel has become an iconic example of a book that can make its readers into better people in 300 pages or less.

While Mockingbird’s message of standing up for what’s right even when the costs are high still receives acclaim, not everyone agrees that it holds the moral high ground. While the main reason it frequently appears on the ALA’s list of banned books is its use of profanity, it’s also been challenged for its one-dimensional representation of African-Americans as docile, simple folk who need whites to protect them. While some see the novel as a powerful statement against racism, others see it as reproducing racism in a less obvious form. No matter which side a reader leans towards, the strong reactions the novel provokes just go to show that its influence remains strong even today.


Read more here.

peaceful repose

From the portfolio of photographer Nicolas Mathéus.