glossed bear ampex

Art must make you laugh a little and make you a little afraid. Anything as long as it doesn’t bore.

Jean Dubuffet

Tropical Squirrel

Yesterday, in the studio, I spay painted one of my good lamps because it was blue before and I couldn't use it -  so today I go back and fetch it and hope that no drips appeared. It wasn't an ideal day with the blasting winds so it will probably need another coat.  I've gone through gallons of silver spray paint between the baskets, the dinosaurs, and now the lamp.  Hey, I COULD be bedazzling!

I also cut out a bunch more squares I think 'quilt-wise', but one never knows-  It's all the Kaffe stripes that I have decided to USE UP since they don't age like fine wines.  And I may be getting to an age where wearing odd combinations will keep me out of the nursing home when I need one.  Anyway, I have to decide which direction these squares are going before I start sewing them together.  I need a PLAN, Stan.

In the GOOD NEWS department, we got the condo we put a bid in for back in MA.  It certainly isn't the palace of my dreams and I am already fighting with TY over what we will use in it and what we can finally donate directly out of our lives, but he likes holding on to everything so we are in for a tough few months.  OK, I have not yet seen this place, I just didn't care as long as it was not a building full of BU students or golden agers.  It's small but plenty of room for my Uggs and a coffee maker-  my priorities.  The good part is it's directly across the street from a great little market so if I get in late at night I can hop over for some fresh pasta and a pound of butter.  They have all sorts of amazing ethnic vegetables too, so much for local, but I do love me a papaya or a fancy squash once in awhile.  Closing on this new place is right after Memorial Day so up we go-  I haven't been in MA since last summer when we sold the big condo, and I do have to say I really missed my family and my favorite haunts.  Bet I will really notice some changes.


ANYway, my life has pretty much been taken up with building ,selling, finding and buying real estate for almost a year now and I'm sick of it.  I want to hang out and not have to think about my little space on earth for awhile.  When does that happen?  

Here we have the last in my artist's series of videos from long ago.  I won't post more unless they magically come across my desk again because nobody has even mentioned them to me, so therefore I guess nobody likes them.  So, bye bye videos.    Hope you like this one---  meet Rodin!


If Rodin didn't grab ya, how 'bout Carl Sagan?  This little bit I find particularly interesting, hope you do too.  I know, no pictures!  Suck it up and read it- do it for me, you'll never have to rely on Snopes again!

Carl Sagan on Critical Thinking, or How To Be A Skeptic!

In one chapter of his book, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan laid out his method, proposing what he called “A Baloney Detection Kit,” a set of intellectual tools that scientists use to separate wishful thinking from genuine probability. Sagan presents the contents of his kit as “tools for skeptical thinking,” which he defines as “the means to construct, and to understand, a reasoned argument and—especially important—to recognize a fallacious or fraudulent argument.” You can see his list of all eight tools, slightly abridged, below. These are all in Sagan’s words:

• Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.”

• Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.

• Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.

• Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives.

• Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will.

• If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations.

• If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them.

• Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler. Always ask whether the hypothesis can be, at least in principle, falsified…. You must be able to check assertions out. Inveterate skeptics must be given the chance to follow your reasoning, to duplicate your experiments and see if they get the same result.

The blog I mean, not Sagan!