For Uncle Tom

Duping Grandma

About a week ago my son Oliver hit the mail jackpot when we received a toy catalog from Target. He didn’t need to ask who this priceless piece of mail was for; rather he knew that anything containing pictures of toys must belong to him. After settling into a comfy chair he began to carefully page through the catalog in a trance-like state. Then once he reached the end he started over again, but this time he stopped to show me the toys that he was exceptionally fond of and “needed to have.”

The most desired toy on Oliver’s list was the pinart toy and fortunately for him, Grandma was coming to visit in less than a day. Grandmas are natural suckers for their sweet little grandsons, especially when their grandsons are experts at playing the manipulation game. After some giant hugs, gentle kisses and well practiced words, my charming son was able to lure his Grandmother to Target so that he could collect his booty.

Oliver now owns this pinart toy and he has not stopped playing with it. At first, like most people, he used his body parts to make art, and then he moved on to using other toys to make shapes in the pins. He now treats the toy more like an instrument and constantly flips the thing back and forth so that the plastic pins go in and out sounding much like a baby’s rattle….I think I could tolerate it more easily, if it truly were a rattle. Thanks Grandma….

Addicted to Dissections

Being a Jigsaw puzzle addict, I can sit and put a puzzle together for hours without ever getting bored and sometimes when I go to sleep at night, I dream of sorting pieces by colors or shapes. When I have a puzzle going, I’ll often work on it when I should be doing other things like showering, eating or sleeping and my mantra becomes “I just want to find one more match.”

Once the puzzle is finished, I feel a bit of accomplishment followed by the compulsive desire to start another one as soon as possible. After going through a few days of withdrawal I can sometimes kick the habit for a couple of weeks, maybe even a month, but eventually my puzzle obsession wins over and I become preoccupied with looking for my next score. At first I'll only talk about working on a puzzle that I already own and have completed before, but then I'll fall completely off the wagon and find myself making any excuse to go to a store with a toy isle. Once I have my $4.00 fix (I’m a cheap addict), I head for home and the sorting begins.

It’s comforting to know that I’m not alone in my habit. There are many others like me and you’ve probably seen one or two without knowing. The next time you go to Denny’s, Applebee’s or Red Robin look for the fairly normal person sorting sugar packets. The act of sorting sugar packets alone doesn’t really prove anything, but if you see them carefully arranging the packets until they fit together perfectly … you may want to run.

Interesting tidbits about the Jigsaw Puzzle:
The first Jigsaw puzzle was created around 1760 and back then they were called Dissections. The term Jigsaw puzzle did not come about until around 1880.

Jigsaw puzzles were primarily used as a teaching aid until about 1820.

Working on a Jigsaw puzzle is an excellent way to reduce stress.

Make Way for the Easter Bunny

I am a self-confessed candy packrat. I still have candy from Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day and up until my recent refrigerator cleaning, I still had some of those multicolored, foil-wrapped chocolate eggs from last Easter! Today these old sweets are going to meet Mr. Trash Can but it will not be in vain for some. For today I dedicate the smiley to the conversation heart (or as they were originally called, the Motto heart).


A Conversation Between Heart's
Be Mine Lover Boy, cause You & Me have Magic. I’m So Fine and You’re an All Star who hit a Home Run when you found this Cutie Pie. Dear One you make me Smile with all your Sweet Talk, and you’d better Be True when we are apart. Remember our First Kiss, Dream of your Nice Girl and come Home Soon, because you’re So Fine and I Miss You Angel…

I think I'm going to throw-up…

$2.49

I lived in Ottawa, Canada for about 2 years and made some good friends at the expense of constantly being harangued about how Canada is so much better than America. Sometimes the rhetoric that flew my way was deserved, but other times, it was how you say – retarded….

For example, it is a fact that many of our highways are littered with burned out mattresses and abandoned vehicles (especially around Detroit where I previously lived for many years). It’s also true that many of our national beers taste like water, but after you’ve had 6, who cares what they taste like? It's not exactly true that you can buy guns at a 7-11. Duhhh!! Every good American knows that if you want guns, you have to go to Safeway…

A simple comparison that I once heard (but wasn’t so sure about) had to do with the lowly penny. The claim was that the Canadian penny is worth more than the US penny because it contains more copper. I never saw any factual evidence to support this claim, so I tucked the tidbit away for future pondering. While making today’s smiley, I thought about the penny conversation again and decided to see what I could find on the internet in relation to copper content. Before reviewing the results, it’s worth noting that the copper content in both the US Penny and the Canadian Penny has varied greatly over the years.

Canucks
1858 – 1941 the Canadian Penny was at least 95% copper
1941 – 1982 the Canadian Penny was 98% copper
1997 – 1999 the Canadian Penny was a mere 1.6% copper
Today, the Canadian Penny is a whopping 4.5% copper (plating)

Yanks
1793 – 1836 the US Penny was 100% copper
1837 – 1856 the US Penny was bronze
1857 – 1863 the US Penny was 87.5% copper
1864 – 1942 the US Penney was bronze
In 1943 the US Penny was zinc plated steel
1944 – 1982 the US Penny was 95% copper
Today the US Penny is a scanty 2.5% copper

So there you have it, the Canucks were correct; since 1997 the Canadian Penny contains almost double the amount of copper as the US Penny.

Before today there was a time when I tossed my foreign pennies aside. To me, the Canadian penny didn't have enough weight and the look and feel said “I’m not worthy of your American pockets.” Then when you dropped it on the ground, it made a hollow clinking sound vs. the substantial tingling sound that a heavy American penny makes when it's dropped. Today I have a new found respect for the Canandian penny. Now that I know it contains nearly double the copper, I'll make sure that it never gets tossed aside again. Seriously, copper is currently selling for something like 12 cents an ounce and prior to 1997 (which isn't that long ago), the Canadian penny contained 98% copper. Perhaps I should go back and check the mint dates on Mr. Smiley’s smile. :)

Mr. Smiley’s Penny Content
Head: 178 US ting-a-ling Pennies
Eyes: 36 US Penny’s
Smile: 35 Canadian clink-a-dink Pennies.
Total: $2.49

Note: The copper content data listed above was lifted from Wikipedia

Petal Power

Gerber Daisies are one of my favorite flowers and recently I've taken to the habit of buying myself a bunch each time I go into Blooms. It's a $4.00 splurge that brings me great satisfaction each time I see them sitting in the middle of my black table - and if you have the straw like tubes to support the daisy's stem, you'll find that your Gerbs will last about 2 weeks or so. Sadly, my bright orange and pink bundle is - slash that -- was on its last leg and I took it as an opportunity to make some more eco art. Today's smiley is dedicated to the unpretentious Gerber.

Lifelist Item #12

With the encouragement of a friend, I created a life list on Monday July 14, 2003. I know the exact date because my list was written on the back of one of those daily menus that you get in a dark, windowless pub. Once completed, I placed my life list in a pocket within my wallet and it has remained there ever since. I have pulled it out now and again and I laugh each time I read item #7 - Swim with Dolphins. If I were still 12 years old, this might be cool, but at 41, it's a little dorky. I shake my head every time I read item #4 - Visit every continent. How much alcohol could I have drank to make me think that this would be desirable? Why would anyone want to go to Antarctica... a place where your eyeballs can freeze within seconds? But then I get to item #8 - Go to the symphony, and I think, why haven't I done that yet? Similarly, I still want to do item #5 - Speak a foreign language fluently. (but I don't even know where my German Cd's are anymore)... Anyway, when I peruse my list, I see that in between the crazy, alcohol induced items, I still have some legitimate items that I want to complete, even if I have to cheat just a smidge.

Before I go on, I'd better back up a little and be clear; this blog isn't about my life list, but it does have to do with an item on my life list. More specifically, this blog will help me to complete item #12 - Create a piece of art that is recognized by the public.

How will this blog help me to complete Item #12?
Well, first and foremost, this is a public blog containing artistic things made by moi...

Secondly, I live in a newer sub that's located out in the country and only a third of the homes have been built so far. There's still a wide open field in the back of the sub and my family enjoys using this space to walk our dog and to allow our child to live-out some of his boyish adventures.

This area has rolling hills, a sprinkling of trees, large holes the size of a pond, and a kazillion rocks poking out of the ground. It's a fun place to explore, no matter the age and someone with a creative mind and a little time on their hands could if they so desired, create some fun eco-art with nothing but rocks and a large swath of grass. Perhaps a giant smiley face is just what the neighbors ordered.

My smiley face is located on a small hill and it's sort of a work-in-progress. I made it in one day, then I thought that it should be bigger, so I made it twice as big the next day. I still think it needs to be bigger, but for today, I'm satisfied and now that pictures of it are in my blog... I think I can check off Item #12... It may not be art to all, but surely to some, if only to my family and I.

What's Next?
I'll continue to make artistic stuff in the shape of a smiley face and I'll write short snipits to go with the image. My hope is that future posts will contain various images of smiley faces, some that I've made, some that are the courtesy of others. Some smileys will be significant in size, some may have an unusual location. Some faces may be detailed, others will be simplistic, but all will be smiling.