Are you ready for "Newt Shrute"? .......

FATHER-SON? - a college-age Newt Gingrich and TV character Dwight Schrute (from "The Office", as portrayed by actor Rainn Wilson).
                   

Well, you can come out of your air-raid shelters, now .... and stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....    

From the "spanning the globe" file ....

SEPARATED at BIRTH - former presidential candidate Rick Perry ....
                   
...... and Chris Coleman - new manager of the national soccer team of Wales.

It won't help to lower the shutters ... but it might if you stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....    

I read this story at the big Orange, about Trust Women Week and the 1 in 3 Campaign.  And though I just posted earlier today that I had nothing to write about, the synchronicity was too much for me to ignore.

Hi, my name is puzzled and I had an abortion.

I had never typed those words, with or without my real name until last night.  By now you all know I'm on a journey toward openness (though not so open I'm ready to give up the relative anonymity of my nom de blog)  :-)

I have shared many parts of my life with the friend I've referenced before, but had told him I needed to hold back a few parts of myself. This is one of those things I thought I'd never be able to tell him.  (insert wry laughter here)

I am finding that in direct contrast to the closed-off person I've always been, by opening up and trusting I am happier, calmer and less fearful.  It makes no logical sense-giving someone information which could later be used to hurt me should make me feel less safe, not more, but life is complicated, and the journey, as well as my evolution, continues.

So I made up my mind to tell him this story  on January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  I was afraid-my heart was pounding as I blurted out (can one actually blurt while typing?) a short version of what I am about to tell you.  Though he is kind and non-judgmental, I worried that he would not understand.  His politics are much more conservative than mine in some ways, he is a churchgoer, and is adopted.  All reasons I should just have STFU and kept my secret buried where it has been since I was fifteen.  But I seem compelled to share, so I did.

I've been casting about for something, anything to write lately.  It used to be that the words would flow without any effort.  I could write in my head while I was going about my daily chores, in the shower, even in my sleep. Recently I went through a spate of blogging the minutiae of my life, but lately, the well has run dry.

I don't consider myself a great writer by any means, heck I don't even know that I'm good. I've only been blogging for 5 or 6 years, and before that hadn't written anything since school.  It has given me an outlet for my racing thoughts, and a way to share things with a (mostly) supportive group of people.

Standing behind the GOP front-runner ... well, you might catch sight of ...

UNCLE-NEPHEW? - Singer Donny Osmond - the youngest of that clan .....
                   

... and Craig Romney - come to think of it: the youngest of that clan, too.

Help keep this crazy train rolling by stopping in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....    

The world of politics has a thousand eyes .......

FATHER-SON? - the late Russian president Boris Yeltsin and our favorite(?) GOP spouse Marcus Bachmann.
                       

.... and so it goes.

For now? Why not stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....    

From Orlando, the city of tolerance, which has brought us such humiliations as begging boxes:

Since 2000, downtown panhandlers have been allowed to beg only in a "panhandling zone," blue boxes painted on the sidewalk in about three dozen locations.

But the Sentinel review found that most of those blue boxes no longer exist. Of the 36 boxes painted downtown seven years ago, only five are still visible. Most were never repainted and disappeared or faded to a vague blue smudge. Many were lost to the condo and office building boom.

"They're all gone, with all the new sidewalks and construction," said Chester Kaczneski, 38, who was panhandling Monday morning at Robinson Street and Orange Avenue -- where there used to be a blue box -- after failing to find work in a labor pool.

"I'm looking for work," he said. "But if they catch you out of a box, you're going to jail."

As I alluded to in an earlier self-indulgent essay, I am attempting to learn a new skill, and have realized that the issue most standing in the way of my success is my mindset.

In order to succeed, ironically, I must learn to embrace failure as part of the process, and let go of my fears.  I must realize that unless I begin to take risk, and learn to live with it, I will never master the process.

To say I am finding this process incredibly difficult would be a gross understatement.

Life imitating art, and all that .....

FATHER-SON? - rock singer Sammy Hagar (Montrose, Van Halen) and TV host Guy Fieri (Food Network).
                           

.... for which Sammy Hagar says he is a 'closet restaurateur' and Guy Fieri is a 'closet rock star' .. and the two have collaborated, unsurprisingly.

Happy New Year, everyone - why not begin by stopping in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....    

My father faced a layoff in 1970, the year he turned 55. For the three weeks leading up to the event, Dad was a wreck. "Danny," he said to me, "if I get laid off, I'll never work again."

I was laid off in 2009, the year I turned 55. Silly me, I thought that, since this is the 21st century, all that ageist crap was done. Hah!

Even in this "enlightened" era, if you're over 50 and you've been out of work for more than 9 months (way more for me), nobody wants to hire you.

Approaching the third anniversary of being laid off, I've thought a lot about jobs and what's become the new normal.

Despite my best intentions to start posting more content here, and in particular more QotD's, I am human, and have let my real life take precedence over my blogging life.    

Mea Culpa

Now, I don't make resolutions--I think they are just a recipe for failure, so I won't promise to improve my spotty posting record in 2012.  

However...join me on the other side of the metaphorical fold, which DA loves to reference, and which I know makes Maryscott nuts, for more of the rambling, disjointed thoughts which seem to be my stock in trade these days.

Each year brings the centennial of certain events in history - and 2012 promises to be no different ....

ANTARCTIC NOTES - the ill-fated voyage of the British captain Robert Falcon Scott to reach the South Pole first (as well as conduct scientific research) will be commemorated in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, England that opens on January 20th ... three days after the 100th anniversary of the date they reached their goal .... in second place, and fated not to return.
                                         

Have a Happy New Year, everyone - but first, help ring-out-the-old .... by stopping in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....