Jo B. Paoletti
  • Home
  • About
  • Writing
  • Gender Mystique
  • Contact
  • Indian Films
  • Everything Else

My Flutophone story

1/4/2021

0 Comments

 

We moved twice between Labor Day and Christmas when I was in third grade. That’s right, three schools in less than few months. I arrived in my last school a few days before Christmas. The entire class had been learning to play Flutophones, and it was too late for me to catch up.

So a couple of days a week I got sent to the school library while they had their Flutophone lessons. That was when I took out the very first book I chose on my own. The rest, as they say, is history.
Picture
0 Comments

Happy National Ding-a-Ling Day! What's that?

12/12/2020

0 Comments

 
I had some great choices for today's holiday! It's also Gingerbread House Day, but that sounded too time-consuming for one person, and less fun than it would be as a group effort. And then I read the description of National Ding-a-Ling Day, and knew that had to be it.
The idea for National Ding-A-Ling Day came in 1971 when Franky Hyle of the Chicago area was at home with friends. "Some husbands and wives were sitting around my house, talking and drinking and thinking people ought to be friendlier to one another," he said. They looked up what "ding-a-ling" meant in a dictionary, and they found one of the definitions said it was "one who hears bells in his head." Hyle decided to create a day where celebrants would call people they haven't seen in years, in order to rekindle old friendships. He wanted to encourage people to be natural and let their guard down. Perhaps the idea of having a phone be involved in the day had to do with the fact that it rings, just like a ding-a-ling is associated with ringing.
In 1972, Hyle began placing an advertisement in Chase's Calendar of Annual Events saying December 12 was National Ding-A-Ling Day, and that a ding-a-ling was a "wonderful, friendly, intelligent, loving, responsible and desirable person." By 1975, almost 900 people had answered the ad and joined the Ding-A-Ling Club. They paid one dollar to become members, and received a bumper sticker which said: "Be a Bell Ringer."
Now, I love the idea of going outside my comfort zone and making new friends, but those who know Jo know that calling anyone on the phone is not on my list of favorite things to do. So I may or may not pick up the phone and call someone, but I am definitely going to meet some new neighbors outside for a COVID-style visit. 
0 Comments

Make a Gift Day

12/3/2020

0 Comments

 
I love making things. I love learning how things are made, and mastering new skills. So I have been looking forward to this holiday all week, my mind brimming with ideas for what to make and for whom. I posted a challenge to share memories of handmade gifts on my Facebook page, and there were so many precious gifts, made by kids and parents and grandparents and partners. We’ve downsized holiday giving quite a bit since over the years; one year we even shared a “Little House” Christmas with a neighbor family. All the gifts were handmade and the food came from the Little House Cookbook.
For today’s celebration, I turned to an old favorite, a craft I photocopied decades ago from a library book. It’s an origami picture frame, just the right size for a wallet-sized picture. I add a ribbon or string and it’s a tree ornament. We have a complete set of school photo ornaments for each kid, and most Christmases they are the only ones I use. This year, we aren’t sure where to put a tree so I hung the ornaments on our apartment door. Our neighbor loved them, so I made her a set of six for her grandchildren’s pictures. Just a few hours work, and I am still smiling,
Picture
0 Comments

Mutts, glorious mutts! Happy Mutt Day!

12/2/2020

0 Comments

 
It’s National Mutt Day! I am a lifelong fan of Team Dog (though I do not disparage cats) and 4 of the 7 dogs my families have owned were mixed breed. (The rest were beagles, in our beagle rescue period.) I am going to celebrate by sharing photos and memories of my mutts, and encourage you all to turn this post into a virtual dog park!
0 Comments

Rosa Parks Day and Giving Tuesday. The stars align

12/1/2020

0 Comments

 
December 1 is Rosa Parks Day, celebrating the day when Ms. Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. This year, Rosa Parks Day falls on a Tuesday, AKA Giving Tuesday, when every nonprofit I have donated To since the Internet began sends me five emails just because they have missed me soooo much. I knew I wanted to connect the two holidays, but how?
Enter the awesome Crooked Media podcast, What a Day and the hostesses with the mostestest Akilah Hughes and Erin Ryan. (The very best way to start my day!) Erin Ryan dropped the brilliant suggestion to go to DonorsChoose and search for a teacher who has a birthday today. I did just that, and also filtered for first-time proposals. And there she was: a first grade teacher in North Carolina who wanted to get reading materials about unity and diversity for her students. I fully funded her project, and dedicated my donation to Rosa Parks.
​Thank you, Crooked Media!
0 Comments

Cities for Life Day. Obscure but wonderful

11/30/2020

0 Comments

 
Yes, yes, I know it's Cyber Monday. But it's also Cities for Life Day, AKA Day for Life, Cities Against the Death Penalty, and a bunch of similar names. It celebrates the anniversary of the first time the death penalty was abolished by a government, and I say YES to that! For the full story, which is very interesting, I refer you to the Checkiday.com description. Over 2,000 cities worldwide in 90 countries have Cities for Life observances. 
 Why did I pick this holiday, rather than any of the other options? (Check them out.) Because I don't believe in the death penalty, and I am ashamed that the United States still practice it. It is a punishment which, like all others in our justice system, falls more heavily on people of color. It is meted out unevenly, with the result that innocent people have been executed in our name. It does not deter crime; that has been proven over and over again. The United Nations General Assembly on this day once more passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty. It passed by a vote of 120-39 (24 abstentions). The "sweet land of liberty", our "shining city on a hill", voted against it.
For more information, visit the website of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
0 Comments

Two holidays!! Beer and square dancing

11/29/2020

0 Comments

 
I can’t decide between two holidays on today’s calendar: Small Brewery Sunday and National Square Dancing Day, so why not celebrate both?
Picture
First, let’s sing the praises of small local breweries. We are living in a golden age of local beer, and here in Maryland we enjoy an abundance of excellent small breweries. In a three mile stretch of U.S. Route 1 a short drive from our home, we can find three breweries, a meadworks, and a distillery making awesome gin and apple brandy. Featured here are our two favorite destinations, Franklin’s Restaurant, Brewery and General Store (come for the fridge magnets, stay for the sours and IPAs) and Streetcar 82, one of a handful of deaf-owned and operated breweries in the country.
And square dancing? When I was a kid in Nebraska, that WAS phys. ed. In elementary school. I have always loved folk dancing, and there is something wonderful about the way that square dancing engages both the body and the brain — you have to listen to the caller, and a good caller keeps you on your toes, dancing and laughing. A few years ago there was a story circulating on the internet about how Henry Ford promoted square dancing as a white supremacist, anti Semitic reaction to the popularity of jazz. Ya know what? That might be why Henry Ford liked it, but I have a feeling that he would really hate the vibrantly queer square dance scene that has sprung up across the country. There is something lovely and hopeful about the transformation of something planted in hate that blossoms in love and joy. So take that, Henry Ford.
0 Comments

Happy (very obscure) Pins and Needles Day

11/27/2020

0 Comments

 
Everyone knows it's Black Friday, and lots of people know it's Buy Nothing Day. But how many have heard of Pins and Needles Day? Observed every November 27 by hardly anyone, Pins and Needles Day celebrates the opening of a pro-labor musical review by that name, produced in 1937 by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union at the Labor Stage Theater in New York. African American dancer Katherine Dunham directed a cast of ILGWU members. It ran for over 1100 performances, and was performed in the White House in 1938. In 1962, a commemorative studio album was released, featuring a very young Barbra Streisand in the lead. Here she is from the original cast album singing "Status Quo".
It's been revived and updated several times since, and everything about its story warms my heart. I've done piecework and other stitchery for a living (if you can call it that), and I have taught about the industrial revolution and unionization. If I had only known about Pins and Needles, those lectures could have had a soundtrack!
Maybe if enough people celebrate Pins and Needles Day, we can have another revival!
0 Comments

Having ourselves a happy little Thanksgiving

11/26/2020

0 Comments

 
     Some people have celebrated Thanksgiving in the same way for years. Not me. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I celebrated with more than two generations and a band of cousins. When I was a kid, we lived in Nebraska, my mom's family were mostly on the west coast, and my dad's tiny family was clustered in South Jersey. So Thanksgiving was just the four of us, with maybe the addition of a random guest or two. After Jim and I got married, we stayed home for our first Thanksgiving, and invited a bunch of fellow students who were at loose ends. Then we had several years of trekking to Other People's Houses because we were the young couple with no kids. My parents divorced in the mid-1970s and Thanksgiving turned into an awkward dance, rationing ourselves out carefully so neither one felt slighted. After we moved to DC, we stopped traveling for Thanksgiving. Not only was it the WORST time to try to go anywhere, and the end of my semester (grading, final papers, panic), but Jim worked in the display department of a big downtown store and often worked overtime the weekend after Thanksgiving to trim the aisles and windows for Christmas. Our Thanksgiving has changed every few years; that's our "tradition".
     For many people, this is a suddenly different Thanksgiving, but for us, it's just another chance to ensure the Important Things happen. There must be pie and stuffing. There must be time spent with friends. There must be gratitude. 
     There was definitely pie. I have had four pieces of pumpkin pie today, and will have more pie tomorrow. There was stuffing, though not enough. (Then again, I never get enough stuffing.) I had a wonderful phone call with a close friend, and we visited with a new neighbor down the hall. And there is gratitude. Gratitude for our new home, for safety, for health and humor, for opportunities to be of use. Gratitude for technologies that have made these months easier, gratitude for artists and musicians, gratitude for health care workers and for children and for cute animal videos. 
     ​When this is over, let's have a party. A big one, with lots of stuffing.
0 Comments

There's jukebox in my pocket, but it's not the same.

11/25/2020

0 Comments

 
It's National Jukebox Day! The jukeboxes  of my childhood had actual 45 rpm records stacked inside, so when you dropped in your coin you could watch the magic of a mechanical arm swinging out, picking your record, and playing it. 
For those of you who like a little history, here's a handy timeline from TouchTunes makers of the first digital pay-for-play jukebox (1998). Of course, today I have a smartphone and access to a personal library of hundreds of recordings, no coin required. Still, there is something about watching sound come out of spinning vinyl, isn't there?
0 Comments
<<Previous

    What's this?

    My Gender Mystique blog focuses on my work on clothing, sex, and gender. That's not all I do, so this blog is about everything else.

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All
    Blog Recycling
    Ethical Consumption
    Fiction
    First Dates
    Indian Film
    Leisure
    Mortality
    News
    North Platte
    Personal
    Poems
    Retirement
    Ruminations
    Social Justice
    Srk
    SRK Quest
    Story A Day
    Teaching
    Unitarian Universalism
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly