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Auction Finds - Collections that baffle me – swizzle sticks
Every now and then, I come across what appears to be a collection that makes no sense. Maybe they aren’t collections but souvenirs that someone bought or collected on a whim, and then just kept adding. And adding and adding. Some of these must be in the realm of hoarding rather than collecting. At auction recently, ...
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Juggling Act - My mom’s world is growing again
My mother recently visited her sister, who lives in a neighborhood less than a mile away. Of course, the siblings see each other often and talk daily on the phone, but for more than a year my mother had not been to her sister's home. The outing marked a significant change in my Mom's life. That ...
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Taking on Life - A good friend has left me for ‘‘a better place”
I attended the memorial service of a friend and former co-worker on Saturday. Jackie and I had worked at our local newspaper for 37 and 37 ½ years, respectively. She was the first African-American woman to be hired in the paper’s composing room while I was the second African-American female to be hired in the ...
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Soul Rhythms - Apology accepted
There are just some things you ought not to apologize for, my friend insisted last week. If you know you are right and that God has told you to do a thing, then no matter how much folks protest or what they say, you just shouldn’t apologize, she fussed. Given the context in which she was ...
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Healthy Southern Comforts - Beating the heat with a cool fruity drink
Every time I even form my lips to complain about 100-degree temperatures, I think about our ancestors and all of the heat they endured during slavery. It’s a testament to all "New World Africans" and anyone who endured slavery that we made it through those horrific times. So, when I compare our circumstances to those of ...
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Recent Posts
Auction Finds - What soldiers send back home (0)
7/28/10 •
Sometimes the smallest things can say so much. A nod, a note, a gift. They can also contain a mystery, taunting us to solve them. One such mystery captivated me at auction this week. I had missed the two items on the auction table on my first walk-through, both lying almost hidden beneath glassware, Hummel-type figurines [...]
Auction Finds - The scent of perfume bottles (0)
7/27/10 •
I don’t wear perfume but I do love the bottles they come in. Many of them are works of art, as refined as some of the fragrances they hold. I’ve found a few in box lots at auction, but none to compare to the vintage ones I saw last week at an exhibit at Longwood Gardens, [...]
Juggling Act - Me & Grandma: Teaching my daughter to cook (0)
7/26/10 •
During the school year, my daughter wasn’t interested in eating breakfast. She wasn’t inclined to eat anything before catching a 6:30 a.m. school bus. So she grabbed breakfast bars, fruit, bagels and other convenient on-the-go foods to eat when she could after the 7:15 a.m. start of classes. This summer, however, she has found her breakfast [...]
Auction Finds - Redd Foxx & women over 40 (0)
7/24/10 •
The first time I saw the comedian Redd Foxx was at a club at the foot of the Las Vegas Strip at a time when the strip ended. He was smoking his trademark cigarette and telling his raunchy jokes. Compared to what comes out of the mouths of rappers these days, Foxx was pretty tame. [...]
Auction Finds - Mounted animals on my walls? No way! (0)
7/23/10 •
I can’t imagine having the stuffed head of a black bear hanging over my fireplace mantle. I can see it now: When I move left, its eyes stalk me. When I move right, they still trail me. The thought of it is unnerving. That apparently doesn’t bother some people, because the half-dozen taxidermied animals at [...]
Keep up with us
Helping vets to reap their (VA) benefits
Russell Davis has spent the last few years aggressively seeking answers to his own veterans' benefit questions. He'll be taking over the Taking on Life blog every Friday to help vets, their spouses, partners and others (especially the women who care about them) to find answers. Click here to ask him a question.
Giving in the name of a beloved sister
Gail Ramsey lost her youngest sister DeAnn White in 2000 when a pier collapsed at a nightclub in Philadelphia while DeAnn and two colleagues from work were celebrating her birthday. The family set up a scholarship fund in DeAnn's name, and has been assisting students with their educational goals for 10 years. Gail shares memories of her sister, and writes about the fund and philanthropy by African Americans.
