Trinket trade boxes

Bloomington nurse and mom Roze Mulen poses with her trinket trade box, where people can swap figurines and toys. 

(Roze Mulen/Provided)

The trinket trade is taking root thanks in part to America’s trending obsession with blind boxes. The Asian retail craze drives shoppers to gamble on purchases of collectible toys and figurines. But buyers don’t know which item is in the box until they open it.

Roze Mulen, a nurse and mom in Bloomington, said her office is packed full of trinkets, including duplicates she’s unknowingly bought in blind boxes. After scrolling on TikTok and seeing people across the country start trinket swaps, she decided to bring the idea to the Twin Cities suburbs...

Trinket trade boxes have lately been popping up across the Twin Cities and in the suburbs especially, as parents and artists like Ross aim to add more whimsy to their residential streets and subdivisions sometimes known for their sameness.

“I wanted to build an interactive community-wide art piece where everyone gets to feel that childhood magic,” Ross said. “It’s not just about trading items. It’s about trading moments of joy.”

Buying boxes of unknown products on the internet seems to me a chancy proposition, but moments of joy are in short supply these days, so if this variant of the Little Free Library does bring joy to others, good for them.  More info at the Star Tribune.

Creating ponds for wildlife

I don't have access to saltwater tidepools, so in my world the most fascinating microenvironment is that of a freshwater pond.  I was therefore delighted to read an article about a fellow who is turning his earthmoving skills into creating ponds de novo on the English countryside.

Britain has lost at least 400,000 ponds over the past century, according to the Freshwater Habitats Trust. A similar number remain but many are overgrown, degraded or affected by nutrient pollution.

“Everyone realises we’re in a sorry state with freshwater and it needs to be addressed,” says Hancox, of Creative Wetlands, a contractor who has dug scores of new ponds for charities and rewilding projects across Britain.

Hancox acquired his skills – the excavator “becomes an extension of yourself, it just flows,” he says – digging landfill sites and golf courses for his family’s groundworks company. “My original job was a shaper on golf courses. We travelled all over, to Portugal, Germany, Belgium, building bunkers and drainage – everything really that wasn’t good for wildlife. I’ve always had a massive interest in wildlife, so we’ve got to the stage now where we want to put something back.”

At Heal Somerset, a 185-hectare (460 acre) former dairy farm being turned over to nature by the charity Heal Rewilding, Hancox is digging four new ponds, including one double-bowled pond 30 metres in diameter.

The ponds are specifically for great-crested newts, which have been found in low numbers on the farm but have no suitable ponds in which to breed. Usually within a year of being created the ponds fill with aquatic life, including damselflies and dragonflies, and provide food and shelter for birds, from moorhens to house martins, who feed on the insects and use the pond-side mud to build nests...

Crucially, these new ponds are not connected to any river system, which can wash nutrient-rich or polluted water into them. Instead, they are charged by clean rainwater or clean groundwater, enabling more delicate aquatic plants to thrive.

Kudos to this fellow for shifting from creating golf courses to creating wildlife ponds.  And kudos to the farm family that has hired him to do the work.  Reminds me of the people who install wildlife guzzlers in the desert.

"Age is no barrier"

At a time of national and international turmoil, there is a certain comfort that comes from watching senior citizens enjoying bodysurfing.  (A "grommet" is surfing lexicon for a "newbie")

Via Nag on the Lake, where there's always something interesting.  

"What a wonderful world" (David Attenborough)

My rule of thumb: if it's a David Attenborough video, it's worth blogging.

BTW, if you've never used the "fullscreen" button on a YouTube video [lower right corner], now would be a good time to try it...

Here's a background on the lyrics:

"What a Wonderful World" is a song written by Bob Thiele (as "George Douglas") and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released as a single in 1967...

The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity. In 1978, Armstrong's 1968 recording was featured in the closing scenes of the first series of BBC radio's cult hit, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and was repeated for BBC's 1981 TV series of the same. In 1988, Armstrong's recording was featured in the film Good Morning, Vietnam and was re-released as a single, hitting #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1988. The single charted at number one for the fortnight ending June 27, 1988 on the Australian chart

Via truthdig.

Reposted from 2012 (!) to insert the Louis Armstrong version:

Reposted again in honor of David Attenborough's 100th birthday.

A Brief History of Kinetic Sculpture Racing

Found by reader smittypap, who posted the link in a comment at my previous post about art cars.

Another example of people having fun.  No war posts today.

An "art car" parade (Houston, 2025)

The video is almost two hours long - a thorough documentation of the parade, apparently without any commentary, best approached for casual viewing by clicking along the scrubber bar at the bottom.  Here are a couple screencaps:

I found the video after reading about the phenomenon in The New York Times:

This was not just a car. It was an art car — a vehicle transformed into a kinetic sculpture, built from imagination and, often, from what others had thrown away.

“I can’t drive past trash without pulling over,” said Mr. Polidore, 50, a longtime elementary school art teacher who writes art curricula for the district. “When I’m stuck in that hellacious Houston traffic, I’m scanning the side of the road for any parts of cars that have gotten thrown off in wrecks and I’m grabbing them.”...

The rules remain minimal. “Whether it’s been painted, welded, sculpted, dropped, chopped, beaded, smashed, crashed, lit or lifted, art cars come in all shapes, sizes and forms,” read this year’s brochure. “The only rule is that it must roll!” And across the city, in garages, driveways and schoolyards, artists have been working for months to ensure that theirs will.

But what might make Houston’s art car parade so special is the fact that many of the artists are children... Over 50 of the cars that roll on Saturday will have been made in Houston classrooms, a striking fact at a time when arts funding in schools continues to shrink...

In Houston, where driving is nearly unavoidable, the art car offers a kind of inversion, a reminder that even the most ordinary object can be remade into something strange, expressive and communal.

Or, as Ms. Soto put it: “Art cars are chaos. Good chaos.”

TL:DR - People having fun.  Something this world needs more of.

Addendum:  If this topic interests you, I encourage you to browse some of the art-car-related posts at Just A Car Guy, including this video of the Houston art car parade.

Argentinian public service announcement

The ending is not what you expect.  It's better...

Reposted from 2015 to counterbalance some of the dreadful news nowadays.

"Wear Sunscreen"

June is the traditional month for graduations and weddings. Across this country and many others, young people are completing middle school, high school, technical schools, colleges and universities, and at a solemn ceremony are listening to advice from graduation speakers.

At my college graduation the scheduled speaker was Martin Luther King, but he was assassinated two months earlier, so Coretta Scott King took his place. One would think that the words from such a memorable occasion would be forever seared into my memory, but in fact I remember not a word of the event.

But I do often think of the words of the "Wear Sunscreen" speech. This was an essay written by Mary Schmich in 1997, and published in the Chicago Tribune. The subsequent history and musical adaptation of the words are elucidated in this Wikipedia entry. The original text is stored here, and at many other places on the net. Over the years this reasonably brief essay has developed an iconic status similar to the "Desiderata" text I blogged last month.

A week from now John and Melanie will be married in Oregon; I regretfully won't be able to attend, but were I there I would offer you the following text of the "Wear Sunscreen" essay as my advice for your future together:

"Wear Sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year- olds I know still don't. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone. Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody's else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen."

Originally posted in 2008, then reposted in 2011 - and again now.

A Twixmas present

The week between Christmas and New Years may be a festive period, but the garbage bin still needs to be wheeled out to the roadside.  We've had recent snow and ice, so I needed reliable traction, and when I put my left foot into a galosh*, I felt something under my sock.  Expecting a curled shoelace there, I was surprised to find instead a food stash.

Expecting the items to be seeds from the crabapple tree, I was surprised again when I looked more closely and realized they were kernels of corn -

- and was triply surprised because there are no corn kernels in our birdseed stash (which in any case is kept in a tightly sealed container).  The colors of the kernels led me to the source -

- colorful "Indian corn" we had used for years as front door Thanksgiving decorations had been meticulously harvested.

There was no doubt about the identity of the culprit.  The unanswered question was - why were they placed in the galosh?  We have a typical American suburban garage - that is to say one that it is littered with (first world problem) lots of stuff, including lawn and garden equipment, plants in containers overwintering, cartons of odds and ends that can tolerate low temps in the winter.  Lots of nooks and crannies.  So why did Mrs. mus musculus choose to traverse the floor, climb (probably along the zipper) of my galosh and drop the corn kernels there?

Factoring in the number of kernels missing from the cobs I have to assume there are other stashes elsewhere in the garage, probably not to be found by me until springtime.  So I can only conclude that the placing of corn in the galosh is not storage for her, but is a gift to me in the traditional European fashion of the Custom of the Shoes.  She apparently is deeply appreciative of our providing her with a non-freezing garage as a "shelter from the storm."  And she is offering me the corn perhaps not for my consumption, but rather as a not-too-subtle hint to "plant more of these please."

And so the year comes to an end on a pleasant note.

* had to look it up.  Perhaps the first and last time in my life I will ever use the singular form (from Middle English galoche, from Old French galoche (“shoe with a wooden sole”).

Children having fun with music

"El Cumbanchero" is a classic (1943) piece of Latin music whose title roughly translates as "party animal."  Lots of previous covers, including one by Liberace.

Magic tricks are fun to watch

Minnesotans volunteer to rescue loons

Nobody has to do this.  Nobody is paid to do this.  People do this because they are basically nice.

This notice was posted on Facebook by the Longville Campground Residents group.  I am sure there are similar volunteer organizations around the country. 

Words for the day: "shoulder pal" and "kidult"

When I clicked on the link I thought it said "My weird week of wearing shoulder pads," so the "shoulder pals" was a bit of a surprise.  

"There was a time when adults who owned collections of stuffed toys were relatively uncommon, weird even. All that has changed recently: the rise in popularity of toys such as Squishmallows and Jellycat Amuseables has been linked to the growing “kidult” market (adults buying toys for themselves) which accounted for almost 30% of toy sales last year. On the whole, cuddly toys are something people keep at home, on their beds or on display shelves. But that’s changing too – plush toy keyrings such as Labubus are now everywhere. And some “Disney adults” (self-professed grown up Disney fans who might, for example, go to the theme parks without taking children with them) have gone one step further: attaching toys not just to their bags, but to themselves.

“Shoulder pals” (variously known as “shoulder plushies”, “shoulder toys” and “shoulder sitters”) are small toys made in the likeness of Disney characters. They have magnetic bases and come with a flat metal plate designed to be placed under your shirt, so the toy perches on your shoulder. Since the first one, baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy, was brought out in 2018, these toys have become a common accessory at the Disney theme parks."

The source article at The Guardian goes on to describe the experiences of a person who wears the shoulder pads not at Disneyland, but in the "real world." I sometimes mock fashion innovations and marketing ploys, but I rather like the concept of "kidult" if the trend can bring just a few moments of levity into otherwise stressful lives.

"I’m relieved when I finally take Remy off. I’ve never felt fully relaxed while wearing a shoulder pal – partly out of self-consciousness, and partly out of concern that it might fall off. But I can’t deny that the responses I’ve had to Remy and his friends have been much more positive than I thought they were going to be. Wearing something so silly and unexpected has invited conversations with strangers, made my friends laugh and created, as Potten puts it, “a little bit of joy in a hard world.

Image cropped for size from the original at the source, credit David Levene/The Guardian.

Stop doomscrolling for a couple minutes...

... and listen to this woman telling you about her ducks.  Via Neatorama.

WWII prisoners-of-war in Minnesota - updated

I watched this program on Minnesota public television while on a recent vacation back to my home area, and was delighted to find that is is available on YouTube.  It is an outstanding and uplifting program, and will be of interest to those outside Minnesota (I think a map in the video shows other POW camps scattered around the U.S.).

Somehow while growing up in the 50s and 60s I never learned that there were German prisoners-of-war living here and working on farms during the war.  It was win-win for American farmers and for the prisoners.  This video is well worth watching IMHO.

Addendum:  A tip of the blogging cap to reader Doyle Stevick, who found a 2025 book on this very subject:  The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America, by William Geroux.

"Today, traces of those camps—which once dotted the landscape from Maine to California—have all but vanished. Forgotten, too, is the grisly series of killings that took place within them: Nazi power games playing out in the heart of the United States.

Protected by the Geneva Convention, German POWs were well-fed and housed. Many worked on American farms, and a few would even go on to marry farmers’ daughters. Ardent Nazis in the camps, however, took a dim view of fellow Germans who befriended their captors.

Soon, the killings began. In camp after camp, Nazis attacked fellow Germans they deemed disloyal. Fifteen were sentenced to death by secret U.S. military tribunals for acts of murder. In response, German authorities condemned fifteen American POWs to the same fate, and, in the waning days of the war, Germany proposed an audacious trade: fifteen German lives for fifteen American lives." 

Canine freestyle

YouTube link.

This is better than some of the ones I've seen presented at Crofts.   I can't begin to imagine the countless hours these two have spent together developing this routine.

The music is Stevie Wonder's "Faith."

Via Neatorama.

Reposted from 2017 because I'm assembling a playlist for someone and wanted to move this up from the archives.

Mother-of-the-Year candidate

Reposted for Mother's Day, 2025.

100,000 people having fun

This video is the happiest thing I have watched or blogged in a very long time. 

Pub Choir is a musical act founded in Brisbane, Australia, directed by Astrid Jorgensen.  At each Pub Choir event, Jorgensen arranges a popular song and teaches it to the audience in three-part harmony, concluding with a performance that is filmed and shared on social media.  There is no formal recurring membership; participants purchase tickets to attend each individual production, which is usually held at a licensed venue...

Jorgensen created a form of musical notation incorporating colour-coded contoured text and comedic visual cues to teach at Pub Choir, so that musical literacy is not required for audience participation...

As Miss C notes at Neatorama -

At every Pub Choir show since 2022, one of the things they did was record all the participants singing at least one line from Queen's operatic anthem "Bohemian Rhapsody" for a project almost three years in the making. Now all those shows have been compiled into one video. The participants totaled more than a hundred thousand singers! 

This video is a convincing reminder of the truth of the old axiom that "nobody cares if you don't know how to dance - just get up and dance," substituting "sing" for "dance."

"Bye and Bye" (Punch Baldwin, with the Georgia Mass Choir)

 

Hard to sit still while listening to this music.  Here are the lyrics:

(Bye and bye) Bye and bye

(Bye and bye) Bye and bye

(When I reach) When I reach

(That home) That home

(Beyond) Beyond the sky

(Where the) Wicked will cease from troubling

(And the) Weary will be at rest

(Every day) Every day will be Sunday

Bye and bye

When I reach that city (oh yes)

City so bright and fair (oh yes)

When all my friends and loved ones (oh yes)

Are gonna welcome me up there (oh yes)

Put on my long white robe

Lay down my heavy load

(Everyday) Everyday will be Sunday, bye and bye

Chorus

Verse

When I reach that city (oh yes)

City so bright and fair (oh yes)

Well all my friends and loved ones (oh yes)

Are gonna welcome me up there (oh yes)

Gonna look up Job, John, and Elijah

God told them to prophesy

(Everyday) Everyday will be Sunday, bye and bye

Chorus

When I reach that city (oh yes)

City so bright and fair (oh yes)

Well all my friends and loved ones (oh yes)

Are gonna welcome me up there (oh yes)

Gonna look up Job, John, and Elijah

God sent them to prophesy

(Every day) Every day will be Sunday, bye and bye

Chorus

(Every day) Every day will be Sunday (4 times)

(Oh Everyday ) Every day- (Will be Sunday) Every day

(Every day) Every day- (Will be Sunday) Every day (3 times)

(No more crying) Every day- (Over yonder) Every day

(No more dying) Every day- (Over yonder) Every day

(No more sickness) Every day- (Over there) Every day

(No more pain) Every day- (Over there) Every day

(Nothing but Joy) Every day

(Joy) Every day (7 times)

(Joy Joy) Every day-(Joy Joy) Every day-(Joy Joy) Every day-(Joy Joy) Every day

(Will you) Every day - (Be There) Every day (2 times)

(Wave your hands) Every day- (If you?re going) Every day (2 times)

(Will you) Every day- (Be There) Every day (2 times)

(Over Yonder) Every day (4 times)

( I feel like Praising) Every day ( I feel like dancing) Every day( I feel like Dancing) Every day

(When I get to Heaven) Every day- (Gonna shout) Every day (2 times)

(Nobody there) Every day- (Nobody) Every day- (Nobody there) Every day- (Will put me out) Every day

(Every day) Every day- (will be Sunday) Every day

(Every day) Every day will be Sunday bye and bye

bye and bye

"The Georgia Mass Choir is an American Gospel music choir from Macon, Georgia.  The ensemble, which numbers 150 members, was founded in 1983 by Rev. Milton Biggham, the lead vocalist and songwriter for the group. He put together the group from over 600 applicants, and recorded with them on his label Savoy Records in the middle of the decade.  In 1996 the ensemble appeared in the Whitney Houston movie The Preacher's Wife and performed at the 1996 Olympic Games."

This gospel song is different from the Christian hymn (and country western favorite) In The Sweet By and By that has been covered by Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley et al, but I wonder if there might be some relationship between the two.

Reposted from 2021 to share with a Zoom group in which I'm currently participating.

Pure joy

 

Five-year-old Pernille plays in a field with 14 German Shepherds from kennel Finika in Norway.  A mental health break from The Dish.

Reposted from 2013 because we need more moments of joy, even if only to watch.