By Andy Rice At the beginning of this football season, dismayed by the recent news about long-term brain deterioration as a result of concussions, angry about the ugly lockout and stories about racism at the NFL combine, and frustrated by the graft scandals in the NCAA, I decided to boycott football viewing this year. It [...]
Can’t remember if I saw this somewhere or came up with it myself… a semi-mod way to display all those rad photo cards. This is nice ribbon, pegged to the wall with thumb tacks. You can pin the cards on or use clothespins to attach (in case sticking pins through photos has too much bad [...]
SimpleViewer requires Macromedia Flash. Get Macromedia Flash. This is a WPSimpleViewerGallery var fo = new SWFObject(“http://www.sparrowpost.net/wp-content/plugins/wp-simpleviewer/viewer.swf”, “viewer”, “100%”, “650″, “7″, “#343434″); fo.addVariable(“preloaderColor”, “0xffffff”); fo.addVariable(“xmlDataPath”, “http://www.sparrowpost.net/wp-content/photos/OldDrawingXmasCards/gallery.xml”); fo.write(“fc_id_663″); Though the question of whether or not I should quit sending paper holiday cards on the basis of their carbon cost has been addressed on Sparrowpost before, it is [...]
I know this might make me the enemy of children everywhere, but this year for Halloween I was trying to come up with good “treats” for the trick-or-treat basket that didn’t involve buying something from Hershey Inc. It was really just good fortune that led me to the concept of melted crayons. I was telling [...]
This certainly isn’t a new idea, but it’s one I love. You can skip the smelly candles and incense diffusers, and instead you can improve the smell in your house (maybe I should speak for myself) by just simmering good-smelling things on the stove. I first saw this when I was working for a woman’s [...]
We’ve talked about it, dreamed about it, thought about it… and finally, this year, for the first time, we have convinced our collective families (Blackmars, Rosses, Rices, and so on) to participate in our first ever no-gift Christmas. We’ve tried training-wheel versions of this for many years… picking a name and only giving gifts to [...]
It’s nearly noon on November 23, Adbusters’ official “Buy Nothing Day.” While this reminder to buy nothing is going up a little bit late, it’s not too late to participate in AdBuster’s “Buy Nothing Christmas” campaign!
Continuing with the Day of the Dead theme this year, I decided to make a pumpkin carved with flowers…
Where dried leaves are concerned, it’s often feast or famine. The leaves are useful year-round, as a component of “brown†refuse that must be alternated with “green†refuse (grass clippings and kitchen scraps) in a successful compost pile. In summer and winter, there often don’t seem to be enough leaves, whereas in winter and spring [...]
Boiling your turkey carcass to make a delicious second day turkey soup or stew is hardly a new thing. The main purpose of this entry is to emphasize that this is an easy process… and so much more satisfying that throwing the remainders of the celebratory bird away.
