Saturday: All I want for X-mas is a baby owl…

Click to go to source post.

Morning, news junkies!

Anyone who really knows me off the blogs knows I am obsessed with owls. I sported an owl beanie + handmade rhinestone owl t-shirt for Halloween this year. I own multiple pieces of owl jewelry. I have owl-themed kitchenware (including a crockpot), and lately I have taken to sending snail mail on owl stationary plastered with owl stickers all over them. Owls are the Hillary of the animal world for me.

I am even considering an owl tattoo, and my very Desi parents would probably have simultaneous heart attacks if they found out. In common Hinglish parlance, I have gone pagal.

My family and I also lost our sweet little pomeranian of almost 13 years this past March. This is my first Christmas in forever without her physical presence, but I still feel her with me…if nowhere else but in my heart.

I am not quite ready for another pet, though I do visit the adoptable kittehs at the Petco right next to my house whenever I have a chance and have grown rather fond of a certain French mastiff puppy in the family. And, just this week I held an adorable fluffy white lapdog (also in the family) in my arms for the first time since I became dog-less. I cried my eyes out the next morning watching home videos of my angel-goddess.

That being said, if it were possible to keep a baby owl that was suitable for domestication in the United States, I would be seriously tempted to own such a beautiful creature. As I understand it, though, owls would not make the best of pets and their dietary habits are not exactly something I’m so sure I could easily adjust to (I’m mostly a pescetarian, occasionally a flexitarian). However, I have been looking into this and found out that my sister and I may be able to adopt an owl from the Houston Audubon Society. This might be the ideal solution for awhile until/if we are ready to have pets again. I am thinking of surprising her either tomorrow or on New Year’s.

Alright, now that I’ve bored you to pieces with my owl monologues (like you give a hoot…I know, I know, bad pun, sorry!)

Anyhow, onto some Saturday reads…

I’ve still got some holiday odds and ends to attend to, so I’m just going to do a straightforward link-dump, with teasers and snippets for your convenience:

• Two links to cheer about, both from Jezebel:

–Welcome home, Wati: Girl Missing Since 2004 Tsunami Turns Up Alive In Indonesia

—The Best Holiday/Military Photo You Will See Today (or this year, imho!); per NPR…For First Time, Women Share ‘First Kiss’ At A Navy Homecoming

• Even more to cheer about…

—Governor ‘All asshat, no cattle’ Perry knocked off Virginia ballot [Wapo]

—Voters leaving Oligarchy flavors, D and R, in droves [USA Today]

• Via Yahoo’s Destination 2012/The Ticket:

—Stephen Colbert offered $400k for South Carolina GOP primary naming rights (and almost succeeded!)

• Hillary headlines:

–Star-Ledger Editorial Board: Hillary Clinton’s forceful remarks on Cairo women inspire pride…

Do women in power make a difference? After the awful situation in Egypt, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s swift denunciation, the answer is a resounding yes. […] Would a male secretary of state—say, a James Baker or Colin Powell—been as forceful or quick? Hard to say. But there’s no denying that coming from Clinton, the words pack an extra wallop.

–Columbia Daily Spectator: Clinton inspires Barnard students at State Department…

At the inaugural colloquium hosted this Thursday, hosted in the State Department building, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a dozen other women leaders spoke to students from Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley Colleges.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Barnard President Debora Spar sat across the aisle from one another.

Farah Pandith, special Representative to Muslim Communities for the State Department, attributed this goal to the “Hillary effect,” a phrase that has come to describe Clinton’s contagious enthusiasm. Pandith applauded Clinton for her 2008 presidential campaign, citing “15 million cracks in the glass ceiling.”

In keeping this reputation, Clinton spoke fervently about the multifaceted initiative. She deplored the United States’ reluctance to support female politicians, while applauding India’s quota of female lawmakers. Clinton’s opening remarks referenced her own experiences, too. “It was 18 million cracks,” she declared.

–humanrightsfirst.org: U.S. National Action Plan Puts Women at Forefront of Foreign Policy (the article pats President Obama on the back for his “own commitment to women’s leadership,” but come on… we all know this is Hillary’s signature issue and without her influence and clout as a crusader for women and girls, this “action” plan would not be happening.)

–via the Canadian Maclean’s: On the job with ‘Hillary’s angels’ (neat photos at the link)…

No U.S. Secretary of state has travelled like Hillary Clinton does. As Barack Obama’s top diplomat, she clocked more than 354,000 km in 2010—enough to circle the globe nearly nine times. And as the woman who famously said she made “18 million cracks” in the “glass ceiling” during her 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton also travels with a highly trained security contingent that includes more than a dozen women.

They were chosen from thousands of applicants to personally guard the secretary as she trots the globe touting American interests. Writing in Elle magazine, Laura Blumenfeld dubbed them “Hillary’s Angels.” Given that they’re trained to fire guns upside down, run for miles on end and take people down in hand-to-hand combat, the handle seems entirely appropriate.

—Great blog post from USA Today’s Christie Garton on Hillary’s Women in Public Service initiative; includes an interview with Kim Bottomly, president of Hillary’s alma mater, which is one of seven sister schools participating in the project.

—Elizabeth Warren And Hillary Clinton Trade Lessons (excerpt from an interview with Elizabeth Warren in The Progressive, highlighted via “Steve’s Politics blog”):

Q: You have an amazing anecdote in The Two-Income Trap about Hillary Clinton and the bankruptcy bill, which she called “that awful bill” and opposed when her husband was President but voted for in 2001, though it didn’t pass then.

Warren: I give Hillary Clinton a lot of credit. When she was First Lady, I sat down with her in a hotel in Boston. I had all these graphs and charts, and she was crunching through a hamburger, listening, and asking a lot of questions, and she really got it. At first, she was resistant. After all, the White House was quietly supporting the banks’ bankruptcy bill. But boy, by about the third or fourth slide she was starting to say, “Oh,” and she could jump ahead. She got it.

Someone later told me there were skid marks on the floor in the White House from people reversing position on that bankruptcy bill when Hillary Clinton got back from Boston.

Steve poses a good question for Elizabeth Warren to answer at the end:

The lesson Elizabeth Warren gave to Hillary Clinton was the explanation of how bad the bankruptcy bill was.

The lesson Hillary Clinton gave to Elizabeth Warren is that even if you understand the horrors of the bill and you convinced President Clinton to veto it, you may still eventually give in to the lobbying pressures once you become a Senator.

I would love to hear Elizabeth Warren’s plan to resist this pressure when she becomes the Senator from Massachusetts.  Unfortunately President George H. W. Bush made the “Read my lips” assurance null and void.   I have no idea what plan Elizabeth Warren could have to make sure she does not succumb.

–via Politico…Hillaryland: Draft movement a GOP plot?

Hillary Clinton’s people — current and former — are mystified, suspicious and bit peeved with the recent raft of mysterious “Draft Hillary” robocalls and emails and a mangy http://www.runhillary2012.net web site – which looks like it was produced in the Hindu Kush.

The current theory, according to posts on a listserv frequented by former Clinton 2008 staffers and senate staff forwarded to POLITICO, is that it’s a GOP plot.

• Sisterland Must-reads!

–Nancy Folbre: Feminism’s Uneasy Success (via Economix; complete with nifty graph)… as Folbre concludes:

The gender revolution didn’t cause this problem, but it is surely being hindered by it.

–David Rosen: Sexual Violence in America (via Counterpunch)

Sexual violence is the shame of the nation.

–Minjon Tholen: Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Should Be Prominent on the Progressive Agenda (via New Deal 2.0)… Tholen’s closing argument:

So rather than imposing abstinence-only education and preventing Plan B from being sold over the counter, let’s follow the Ad Council’s lead in acknowledging reality, trusting people to make responsible decisions, providing comprehensive information and resources, and recognizing the social and economic benefits of respecting women’s sexual and reproductive rights. The progressive movement needs to once and for all understand and embrace how these issues are intertwined with all of our other causes and put these rights at the core of its agenda.

–Bryce Covert: The Paternalism of the Holiday Car Ad (via New Deal 2.0)… from Covert’s piece:

As Annie Lowrey tweets in parody of these ads, “Husband buys wife a car! Wife expresses horror that he made a major financial decision unilaterally, on impulse!”

• Meant to post this last weekend… calling all fellow Jane Austen fangirls:

—Happy Birthday Jane Austen and the 7 Hottest Austen Men (via Houston Press’ Art Attack).

–Amanda Vickery: 200 years on, why Jane Austen’s lovers find new reasons for their passion (via the Guardian/Observer):

Many different Jane Austens have been celebrated since 1811 – sweet Aunt Jane in her rose-wreathed cottage, sardonic critic, master stylist, mother of the novel, feminist rebel and queen of romantic comedy. I think the key to her adaptability is her restraint. Austen leaves room for the reader’s intelligence and fantasies, which has the uncanny effect of allowing each new generation to see themselves reflected back from her pages. And in another 200 years, I am sure readers still will.

• Today (December 24th) in Women’s History:

–Via lizlibrary:

Event: 12-24-1948, first solar heated house occupied. The experiments were sponsored by Amelia Peabody, house designed by Eleanor Raymond, It was cheap and effective and promptly ignored by industry.

–For more info, see Fast Company’s March 2009 report “Some of the Greatest Inventors Are Women“… here is the blurb specifically about Dr. Telkes:

Maria Telkes invented the first solar home heating system:Maria Telkes was fascinated with the sun. She went to high school in Budapest, Hungary, and gained a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Budapest. She traveled to the United States in 1925 and eventually joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Solar Energy Research Project.

While she was there, a Boston sculptor, Amelia Peabody, approached Maria and offered to pay for construction of a solar heated house on land she owned in Dover, Massachusetts. The house was to be designed by architect Eleanor Raymond. Maria was to design the solar-heating system.

That was in 1948. “I envisage the day when solar heat collecting shelters, like power stations, will be built apart from the house,” she told W. Clifford Harvey of The Christian Science Monitor. “One such solar-heating building could develop enough heat from the sun for pumping into an entire community of homes.”

Just think of all the carbon footprints Dr. Telkes could have shrunken by now if the world were ready to lift up its female talent instead of ignoring it. Especially during the holiday season!

Speaking of which, I stumbled upon this Blake & Sons Heating and Air blog post that I thought I’d close with…

A Holiday Debate: Clean Air vs. Full Wallets

It’s hard to spoil the Christmas or Hanukkah spirit at the popular holiday bazaars that sprout every year in places like Union Square or the Columbus Circle corner of Central Park, selling all manner of tchotchkes, knick-knacks and bric-a-brac for impulsive gift hunters.

But Jeffrey H. Brodsky, a graduate student in history at Columbia University, points out that all those stalls, lights and heaters are powered by diesel-fuel generators, which environmental groups say emit fumes that can aggravate lung and heart ailments and cause problems in children’s developing bodies.

“I’m not saying they should be closed down, but it’s almost Third World to put up with them,” said Mr. Brodsky, who lives three blocks from Columbus Circle. “We’re in the middle of New York City and we should be able to use electricity. We have ample power. It’s surprising that the city administration allows something so antithetical to public health.”

The markets have contracts with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, whose officials have pointed out in the past that they produce sizable revenue for a city in need just now, and that they are temporary; they last a month or so.

People vs. profit…the age-old political dilemma continues. I don’t think the original DFH (Dirty Frick-on-a-stick Hippie) Jesus would be very pleased with the priorities that rule our country today.

I’d love to see Amy Poehler on Parks and Recreations tackle this one.

Well, I think that about covers it for me. I hope you have a lovely Saturday & Sunday, however you spend it. Once again, I am very privileged to be co-blogging the morning reads on X-mas weekend alongside the magnificent Minkoff Minx…I can’t wait to see the linky goodness she serves up at the buffet table tomorrow morning! On behalf of the Sky Dancing frontpage team, here’s wishing you and yours ‘a merry & a happy’ as we look back at 2011 and look forward to 2012. I know it’s a busy time for a lot of us (and for the rest of us, it’s a time to sleep in and ignore the season of excess!), but if you can drop in and let us know what you are up to for the holidays and what’s on your reading list this weekend, we are always happy to hear from you! And, with that, I’m turning the discussion over to you in the comments, Sky Dancers.

Saturday in Sisterland

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers the keynote address at the Inaugural Women In Public Service Colloquium, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on December 15, 2011. (State Department photo/ Public Domain

Morning, news junkies!

Don’t you just love the photo of Hillary to the right? Hillary looks so glamorous and elegant in black, with her hair flipped out, and please note the sign on her podium. It’s the name of an initiative she has just launched. An iconic shot, if you ask me.

Bloomberg has the scoop:

Clinton Seeks Women Leaders to ‘Tackle Our Biggest Problems’

By Nicole Gaouette – Dec 15, 2011 11:01 PM CT

Hillary Clinton would like to see more women in government around the world.

She said she knows “how daunting it is” for women to consider a public-service career, yet “we need women at every level of government from executive mansions and foreign ministries to municipal halls and planning commissions, from negotiation international disarmament treaties to debating town ordinances.”

To that end, Clinton yesterday initiated the Women in Public Service Project, a program intended to increase the number of women in leadership. This summer, for instance, 40 women from the Middle East and North Africa will go to her alma mater, Wellesley College, to gain skills in public speaking, coalition building, networking and mentorship.

The initiative reflects an idea that Clinton has returned to throughout her tenure as the top U.S. diplomat — that people, their communities and countries do better when women are active participants in public life.

The issue isn’t just about fairness, the top U.S. diplomat said. “It’s about expanding the pool of talented people to help tackle our biggest problems.”

That’s our Hillary, and this is her life’s work–tirelessly framing the principle of fairness in terms of solving problems and dilligently doing the legwork to bring both objectives together in the form of concrete actions. She’s our modern-day Franklin and Eleanor, all in the same person.

Hillary’s partner in campaining for women and girls–Melanne Verveer–says the Women in Public Service project is “going to grow exponentially.”

Even as the hunger for the ordinary man’s right to self-goverance continues to grow around the world, the political participation of women still remains a taboo, as the Arab Spring has brought into focus.

‘Dirty Word’

Private sector help for the program will be crucial, Clinton said. Computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL), based in Round Rock, Texas, will provide hardware, training and other support for the program. Ogilvy Worldwide is helping with public relations and information support, she said.

While women in North Africa and the Middle East have played a pivotal role in the Arab Spring, “for many of them, politics was still kind of a dirty word” and there may be some reluctance to stay engaged in the process of reform.

Clinton said she made the point that if these women don’t make their own transition from taking part in “this extraordinary historic revolution to actually doing the hard, and yes, sometimes boring difficult work of politics, you may not realize the gains and the hopes that you had demonstrated for.”

Hillary’s words are very salient there. Women are their own best advocates. If half this world’s population doesn’t stand up for themselves in every nook and cranny of this planet, then all the protest fever in the world will be limited in what it can achieve.

Women have to be equal and respected participants of protests for protests to matter.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on December 15, 2011. (State Department photo/public domain)

Here’s one last excerpt from the Bloomberg piece, but I urge you to click over to the article and give the rest of it a read:

‘Grit Your Teeth’

Clinton and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and one of the speakers, spoke about the hurdles to women that remain.

“It’s not as though there’s been this huge, cosmic change” in attitudes, Clinton said. “It still is hard.”

Clinton mentioned a radio interview she heard while getting dressed for work this week. A woman interviewed about Republican presidential nominee Michele Bachmann said she wasn’t comfortable supporting a woman for president.

“Imagine my reaction,” said Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate in the 2008 election. “So it’s not only in other countries that attitudes need to be addressed. It is even in a country like my own.”

Lagarde gave the women in the crowded auditorium two pieces of advice. The first was to build a list of talented, skilled women so that the next time a male employer said they were unable to find a qualified woman for a job, they could whip out their list. She recalled the struggle she had as French finance minister with state-owned firms reluctant to hire women, despite laws requiring it.

“Start building your list,” she said to applause. “Do it, do it, do it and use it.”

Lagarde’s second tip focused on the hostility toward women that remains in too many workplaces, however subtle: “Take the bashing, grit your teeth and smile, because there will be others after you,” she said.

Speaking of hostility toward working women, particularly single working mothers, Bryce Covert over at New Deal 2.0 discusses the consequences of state cutbacks in childcare services — Cutting Back on Childcare Assistance Puts Single Mothers in the Hole:

Single mothers aren’t faring very well in the recovery. Their unemployment rate was 12.4 percent in November, up from 11.7 percent in June 2009. An unemployed single mother will clearly need help with at least one thing to go out and get another job: childcare. And those who have jobs are still trying to make ends meet, potentially working longer hours and in need of someone to care for their children. But just as the need for childcare assistance is surely rising, states are cutting back. A new report from the National Women’s Law Center shows that those in need of assistance were worse off this year compared to last year in 37 states when it came to income eligibility limits to qualify, waiting lists, copayments, reimbursement rates, and eligibility for assistance to parents looking for a job.

Denying women support for childcare will directly impact their ability to save and their need to take on debt. As a report from NYU Wagner, “At Rope’s End,” says, “The hefty costs associated with single parenthood, which include childcare, housing, food, health insurance, among others, decrease the likelihood that, even with a stable income, these mothers will be able to accrue wealth.” And paying for childcare is no small cost. The average price of full-time care can range from $3,600 to $18,200 annually, according to the NWLC report, and At Rope’s End estimates that this cost accounts for over three-quarters of single mothers’ monthly expenditures.

Here’s a related graph, via Economix, from earlier this month:

In the month of November, the number of men in the labor force (working or actively looking) rose by about 23,000. By contrast, the number of women in the labor force fell by 339,000. (The numbers do not add to a 315,000 net loss because of rounding.)Even more peculiar is what these lost female workers did before they dropped out.

Typically when we think of workers dropping out of the labor market these days, we think of workers who have been unemployed for a while and have simply given up looking for a job. But last month, almost all of the net loss of women from the labor force was accounted for by women who had jobs right before they dropped out.

Here is a pie chart for the 3,893,000 women who left the labor force in November — the gross number, so not subtracting those who newly entered the job market — sorted by how those women were categorized the month before:

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Now the numbers are volatile, so take this with a grain of salt. We also do not know why so many women left their jobs to drop out of the labor force. Probably some of them were going on maternity leave, and some quit their jobs for other reasons.

I would guess that most of them, though, were laid-off workers who had not yet started looking for a new job. After all, state and local governments are shedding workers in large numbers, and most state and local workers are women.

Couple that last statement with the fact that states are cutting back on childcare, and you can see that women are hurting in this economy–one for which President Obama recently offered these oh-so-inspiring, Condi-esque words…“we didn’t know how bad it was.”

Sheesh, well if the brilliant and immaculately conceived Barack Obama could not tell how bad it was, then who could have? Certainly not Dr. Dakinikat, nor that ‘stupid bitch’ who wouldn’t quit in 2008, and definitely not any of those silly wimminz who voted for her.

I guess only the ubiquituous ‘Nobody’ could have forseen…

(By the way it was the original ‘Nobody’s’ 181st birthday last Saturday!)

Shifting gears a bit… once again, Ukraian feminists have gone wild, making some waves… FEMEN, Ukrainian Women’s Rights Group, Protests Russian Elections (warning: Huffpo link contains NSFW photos):

Security guards detain activists from women's rights group Femen for staging a performance to support Russian opposition groups and to protest against violations at the parliamentary elections in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow December 9, 2011. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

Russians aren’t the only people protesting the allegedly rigged parliamentarian elections held earlier this month.

Turns out FEMEN, a Ukrainian feminist group, is also up in arms about the win of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in the Dec. 4 elections.

To show their disapproval, FEMEN protesters stripped down in front of The Cathedral Of Christ The Savior in Moscow on Friday, holding signs that said, “God Get Rid Of The Czar,’ AGI reports.

The women were detained by security guards and taken into police custody, Reuters reports. The women were released shortly after being detained.

In an effort to explain their stance, the the FEMEN protesters wrote about the Moscow demonstrations today on their website. They noted that during the protests, one of their activists dislocated her arm as a result of a scuffle with the guards.

This reminds me of *last December* around pretty much the same time, when the same group of Ukranian feminists ‘urinated in protest’ of the country’s all-male cabinet (scroll to the middle of the linked post for details).

These gals know how to do holiday sacrilege in the month of December!

That Reuters pic of the security guards detaining the protesters is disturbing, though.

Which brings me to this next bizarro world link… via Jezebel:

Heathen Pink Bibles Pulled From Shelves Due To Nefarious Planned Parenthood Connection

Scary pink bibles talking about girly parts!

Nearly every product imaginable, from Band-Aids to KitchenAid mixers, is now available in pink, and Americans are constantly encouraged to buy these items to support the fight against breast cancer. So why is a Christian bookstore furiously pulling pink Bibles from its shelves? Because they raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which in turn funds Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer programs. CNN reports that in recent weeks conservative Christian groups were put in the strange position of rallying against a Bible after people complained that $1 from the sale of each “Here’s Hope Breast Cancer Bible” goes to the Komen foundation.

A dollar from the sale of each bible went to breast cancer awareness and screening, oh noes! It’s a war on the baby jesus!

Moving along from the religiously challenged to the politically bankrupt…

Wonk’s $0.02 on 2012

So far next year’s election cycle doesn’t look like much to write about politically. I’ve dubbed it ESOTUS 2012–i.e. Empty Suit of the United States 2012. (Please refer to my primer on the tortured logic of trying to choose between Romney and Obama.)

So I’m going to skip right to about the only bit of human interest that I’ve come across yet:

Why would any self-respecting woman endorse an empty suit? (To get her foot in the door of his Administration, methinks.)

Is Nikki Haley going to get the VP nod? Double X’s Jessica Grose says she buys Haley’s insistence that she’s not looking for a spot on Mittens’ ticket, but I don’t know what to think. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised to see Haley somewhere in a Romney Administration, should the “perfectly lubricated weather wane” (thank you, Jon Huntsman) win.

Ok, next up…I was bored to tears by Huffpo’s stuffy “9 Books to Get Your Sister” list, so I’ve made up my own wishlist called “7 books you can buy me, sister-friend:”

• Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern
  

  Actually... click to go to the Amazon listing, and then you can click to look inside!

• Then Again, by Diane Keaton
• Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, by Chelsea Handler
• Persuasion: An Annotated Edition [Hardcover], by Jane Austen
• Back to Work, by Bill Clinton
• Vivian Maier: Street Photographer [Hardcover]
• The Cupcake Diaries

And now for… Today in Women’s History

Deborah Sampson - For the Good of the Country, artwork by Pamela Patrick White

Deborah Sampson was born, December 17, 1760… I loved this blurb on Sampson, from artist Pamela Patrick White, via Old Glory Prints:

A tall girl, Deborah enlisted in the 4th Mass. Regiment of the Continental Army, as Robert Shertliffe. Wounded twice during the war – by bullet and saber slash, she was honorably discharged by Henry Knox at West Point. Good enough for her country, but not good enough for the Baptists, who excommunicated her.

Phyllis Schlafly is even now uncertain if she could cook and thus be worthy of Citizenship.

Learn more at:

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets.html

http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/sampson.html

http://www.americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/SAMPSON.HTM.

Before I go, a few pick-me-ups…

This first one is a h/t to quixote who sent me the link to the BBC story: Oil spill penguins released into sea off New Zealand.

I’m just going to put the youtube up here for your convenience:

And, this second one is a h/t to Minkoff Minx… via EarthSky: Who knew baby rhinos sounded like this?

Again, I’m just going to embed the video here so you don’t have to click over:

And, one more… this one is a link to a tumblr of baby animal photos and you’ll have to click over to see all the warm fuzziness (via the Design Inspiration):

70 Cutie Baby Animals Bring You a Good Mood

It’s really hard for me to choose just one, but this was the first one I happened to see:

Ok, well that’s it for me. I hope you keep warm and happy and drop in with what’s on your reading list this weekend!