Sleeping with books . . .

Bookcase in my guest room.

Fashion designer Bill Blass even sleeps with his books.

This photo ripped out of an old magazine years ago convinced me to put floor to ceiling bookcases in both of my bedrooms. This chamber is in an 18th century stone weekend house in northwestern Connecticut owned by Bill Blass. The bibliophile is a major benefactor of the New York Public Library, a friend to literary lions, and a daily reader no matter how crammed his business and social schedules become. He even sleeps with his books in this cozy bedroom with a library wall.

Nothing stops me in my tracks quicker than a photograph of a wall of books.

Where do you keep yours?

"Malcolm S. Forbes Quote" + Free Font to Download . . .

More information about the author of this quote.

The interesting font I used is called ECOFONT, designed to save ink.

It's a free download here.

Tina Fey is the realest woman on the planet . . .

I have always loved the way Tina Fey chose to depict herself in this ad for American Express. What a mess! Somehow I don't think this was staged at all, do you? It is so real and so refreshing. Who says you have to be compulsively neat to be successful?

Be on the lookout for her at Costco.

Picasso Quote on a brick wall at Smith College . . .

On the side of Hatfield Hall at Smith.

flickr

Henry Ford's Advice | No Bailout . . .

Henry Ford with Model T in 1921.
American industrialist and pioneer of the assembly-line production method.

I wonder what he would have to say about the pitiful state of the American automobile industry?

Maybe all those boys in Washington should take a break today and read some words of wisdom from Henry Ford.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.

A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.

People can have the Model T in any color--so long as it's black.

As an industrialist Henry Ford’s #1 rule was: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large. All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don't let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance.

Tina Fey cover | Vanity Fair photographed by Annie Leibovitz . . .

Can't get enough of Tina Fey? Go out and buy the January 2009 issue of VANITY FAIR. She's on the cover and there is an in depth interview inside by Maureen Dowd.

Tina Fey has rules. They’ve guided the 38-year-old writer-comedian through marriage, motherhood, and a career that went into hyperdrive this fall, when her Sarah Palin impression convulsed the nation, boosting the ratings of both Saturday Night Live and her own NBC show, 30 Rock. Backstage at S.N.L., where “Palin” met Palin, and at the home Fey shares with her husband and daughter, the author reports on how a tweezer, cream rinse, a diet, and a Teutonic will transformed a mousy brain into a brainy glamour-puss.

Read more... WHAT TINA WANTS by Maureen Dowd

rare George Washington miniature portrait acquired by Yale for $303,000 . . .

November 26, 1789 ~ (219 years ago today)
George Washington proclaimed "day of Thanksgiving"

Photo: Courtesy Skinner Inc., Boston.

NEW HAVEN, CT.- The Yale University Art Gallery announces the acquisition of Robert Field's portrait miniature of George Washington. Price paid: $303,000. What makes this miniature rare is its personal meaning to our first president's family. It was commissioned by Martha Washington in 1800 to commemorate her husband's life and to ease her family's grief. The 2-3/4" x 2-1/4" watercolor-on-ivory portrait is housed in its original locket; inset on the reverse over a woven lock of Washington's hair is a rose-gold "GW" cipher. Hair, which survives time and decay, was often incorporated into keepsakes of love and loss. Martha Washington gave this miniature to her step-granddaughter, Sarah "Sally" Stuart, and it has been passed down through the family since its completion in 1801.

Field's portrait of George Washington joins an extraordinary miniature of Martha Washington already in the Yale University Art Gallery's collection. Both were painted at her request by Field in 1801 as part of the same commission. The artist's informal portrait of Martha portrays her as a mourning widow, signified by the black ribbon on her cap. The miniature's locket has a decorative reverse adorned with sixty-seven pearls, George Washington's age at the time of his death. Martha Washington originally gave this miniature to her great-granddaughter, Frances Parke Lewis (Mrs. E. G. H. Butler). It was acquired by Yale in 1947.

Intended to be cherished by family members, these expressive keepsakes allow us to glimpse George and Martha Washington as a private couple rather than as public icons. The reunited pair will be introduced to the public in the Gallery's traveling exhibition "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery", on view at the Seattle Art Museum from February 26-May 24, 2009.

Portrait History: Robert Field (ca. 1769-1819) produced eight miniatures at Martha's request in 1800 to commemorate the revered President on the one-year anniversary of his death. Six of them, given to friends, showed him in civilian dress. Only two miniatures, given to family, showed Washington in full military uniform; one of these is the recent Yale acquisition.

Among the most accomplished British-born miniaturists working in America, Field painted portraits of prominent citizens-merchants, judges, generals, and politicians-in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, and Boston. In contrast to many American portrait miniaturists, who painted opaquely on small ivory disks, Field, who arrived in Baltimore in 1794, brought with him a more luminous technique for painting on a larger ivory. In this portrait, his crisp draftsmanship defines Washington's uniform. The artist's characteristically sinuous strokes transcribe the curving contours of Washington's face, with the glowing ivory support serving as highlights in the flesh tones and the vigorous sgraffito, or scraping, giving delineation to the eyelids and irises. Field posed Washington against a gray sky that brightens at right to draw our attention to the sitter's face. Washington engages the viewer with a slight but tender smile and an intimate, direct gaze.

The Yale University Art Gallery is a center for the study of American portrait miniatures. These reunited portraits of George and Martha Washington, painted as tokens of marital love and familial devotion, will be seen and studied by visitors, schoolchildren, scholars, faculty, and students for generations to come.

Babe Ruth uniform sells for $310,500 . . .

"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." Babe Ruth

Louisville, Kentucky ~ Hunt Auctions, a sports memorabilia auction company based in Exton, Pennsylvania, and the official auction company of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, sold Babe Ruth's final professional road uniform Saturday, November 15, for $310,500 at the fifth annual Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Auction.

The Brooklyn Dodgers uniform (pre-auction estimate $150,000/200,000) is from Ruth's days as a coach in 1938 and is a record auction price for a coach's uniform.

"Babe Ruth proved once again he is larger then life," says David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions. "The prices realized today for the Ruth uniform among others are an excellent indication of the resilience of the sports memorabilia market in the face of a difficult economy."

The uniform comes from Ruth's lone season coaching with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and features a heavy gray flannel Spalding jersey and matching pants, both of which include Ruth's full name in chain stitch. The uniform shirt displays the blue Dodgers team name across the front, and Ruth's uniform number "35" on the back.

The jersey remains in completely original condition, and exhibits the light to moderate use consistent with Ruth's position as the Brooklyn Dodger's first base coach. Ruth ended his illustrious career in baseball as a coach, though his dream had always been to become a Major League manager.

A Babe Ruth photograph by Charles Conlon, circa 1927 sold for $23,000.

René Magritte | 110th birthday today . . .

When I clicked on Google today, this is what I saw.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA Google is celebrating the 110th birthday of Rene Magritte by incorporating some of Magritte's masterpieces with the Google logo. Ever so often, Google adds a "doodle" or a decoration they make to their logo. Over the years doodles have become one of the most beloved parts of Google. The doodle selection process aims to celebrate interesting events and anniversaries around the world that reflect Google's personality and love of innovation.

Today is René Magritte's 110th birthday.

Painting in the Museum of Modern Art.

Painting Sold November 5-6, 2008 in NYC
Christie's ~ Price Realized ~ $3,544,500.

René Magritte (1898-1967)
L'Empire des Lumières
Signed 'Magritte' (upper left)
Gouache on paper 11 5/8 x 9¼ in. (29.5 x 23.5 cm.)
Painted in 1947.

Happy Birthday to René Magritte Belgian surrealist artist.

Thanksgiving Turkey Illustrated Quote . . .

Margaret Mead Quote . . .

Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
American anthropologist whose great fame owed as much to the force of her personality and her outspokedness as it did to the quality of her scientific work.

Ansel Adams Environmental Quote (illustrated) . . .

Ready money . . .

Need I say more?

Gwyneth + Mario in Spain on PBS ~ Premiers 9/20 . . .

SPAIN - On the Road Again premiers on PBS the week of September 20th. The 13-week series begins tonight in some areas. In New York and New Jersey it is on at 3pm tomorrow (Sunday 9/21). That seems like an odd time slot to me ~ I am so glad I checked the schedule so I could set my DVR. How did we ever live without those great machines?

You can view the listings for your area on this PBS site and see lots of photos and video clips. I don't think you have to be a foodie to enjoy this program. The scenery looks amazing. The stars are Gwyneth Paltro, Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, and a Spanish actress named Claudia something. So that's two actresses and two chefs.

I hope you read this in time to see the first episode. I should have posted about it earlier. Better late than never. Enjoy!

Martha Stewart Show ~ All Bloggers Today . . .

The Martha Stewart Show today (9/17) is about blogging and all the audience members are blog authors. Some began blogging live on their laptops as soon as they entered the building at 8:30am. I am watching the show right now. It is on at 11am in New Jersey. Later in other places. Try to watch.

I don't get Fine Living Network but I am pretty sure this show will be rebroadcast there tonight. Check your local listings.

I was following the live posts from Geek in Heels and WeddingBee in case you want to read their comments from the audience.




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