What a deal! I went on a coupon shopping trip today.   I armed myself with a fistful of carefully prepared bargains, braced myself for the inevitable waves of dirty miscreants, and entered Wal-Mart with one intention in mind: Savings! A great deal of you probably have your hands out right now, demanding that I hand my Man Card back in to be unceremoniously recycled into confetti, but hear me out!   Times have changed, technology has progressed, and this ain’t your grandmother’s... Read Full Story

I was rather surprised to find this little ad in one of the old clippings in the Paperwall; I thought back before the turn of the century and even into the early 1900s “female problem” discussion was taboo and we simply knew that babies came from there, mysteriously somehow, and for a week a month the husband would have to spend his nights down at the saloon instead of crunching the old hay tick.   That being said, I am terribly amused by the phrase, “Don’t confide in ... Read Full Story

I found the neat site, Wordle.net, courtesy of Billygean today, and decided to create one for this blog.    So, without further ado, here’s the Wordle for PhilosYphia.      Go create your own Wordle! © Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2009. | Permalink | No comments....YET! Make one! | Subscribe RSS Read Full Story

I am unsure where today’s Paperwall posting comes from, whether an opinion piece, news piece, or in-paper story, mostly because in the late 1800s “news” was often a mix of all three and one could expect facts and reporting to sit right along with blatant opinion and any anecdotal piece that enhanced the story for the reader.   In some ways, this makes the newspapers a lot more fun to read from this era. The author of this posting apparently had a rant about people bathing &#... Read Full Story

Today’s Paperwall article comes from The Des Moines Leader on October 30th, 1888.    It proves that you should A) never reheat old coffee and B) always watch out for foreign objects in your food when camping: Title:  Poisoned by Centipede Venom A family of six persons by the name of Boulding, moving by wagon from Tennessee to Texas, camped on the line of Baxter and Boone counties, in Arkansas, one night.   They had coffee at supper, which was prepared in a tin vessel without a cover.  N... Read Full Story

A new feature on this blog for the next 13 weeks or so will be the Paperwall.    These are small excerpts from very old newspapers that were used as wallpaper backing in a house I used to live in.   When I redid the bathroom and pulled down the walls, these were exposed.   I kept a majority of the very large pieces and have scanned them and poured over them for interesting bits and pieces.    The newspapers I can identify are The Des Moines Leader of Des Moines, IA;  The Sheffield Press of Sh... Read Full Story

Arms and legs flail in various directions, flesh trying desperately to keep up with the random direction changes that the routine demands.  Huffing and puffing like a senior in desperate need of a fresh oxygen tank, he tries in vain to copy the motions of the ripped samples bouncing on the TV screen in front of him. “One, two, three, fuck, five, six…” he counts, trying desperately to keep from bursting into laughter or tears at the effort required and the strange contortions... Read Full Story

My dear Keston, I was up very late last night (it was a Hallowed Eve, after all), long after you and Mummy had gone to bed to prepare the house for your birthday party today.   I was deep in the middle of washing the floors and was idly rinsing the soiled mop when I was suddenly overcome and nearly burst into tears standing there over the sink of dirty, grey water.    I don’t know why it suddenly hit me, but I was going to have a 2-year-old boy the next day and it suddenly rushed in on ... Read Full Story

I have obtained for myself a regular little helper, a little guy who’s always around when I’m trying to get supper going or dishes washed at night before settling down for a good game of trains.   Once lured by the sweet serenades of PBS kids’ shows, he now finds himself irresistably drawn to the kitchen and the perch ontop of his little red stool, watching intently everything that happens and commenting on it all the while. We were so engaged the other night as I worked up ... Read Full Story

This year’s Blog Action Day subject is, “Climate Change”, and there are thousands of bloggers around the world writing in on this subject from all sorts of angles — support, refutation, complaints, issues, problems solutions.    But in the end, no matter what your understanding or opinion on the subject, dealing with climate change issues comes down to a moral issue over all of them, and I think all sides can agree on that point. Whether or not climate change is taking... Read Full Story