Eight Things Learned in November

Postal rates are tricky: mailing 1 calendar is $2.88; 2 in 1 envelope is $4.08, 3 in 1 envelope is $11. So, if someone orders 3 calendars, it costs less to use 2 envelopes for $6.96. If someone orders 4 or more, I have to figure out the various flat rate envelopes, versus packing in lots of single envelopes. Pay attention!! Nope. The first time I mailed 2 in one package, it was $4.08. The second time, it was 8.15. Never mind, Central Calif. artist: this is why the postal employees are there. And I still am not charging postage to my customers, because we all can use a little gift. $20, including tax.
“The soft bigotry of low expectations” is a phrase I recently heard, and it struck a chord with me. The phrase is best used to describe treatment of some communities, as if dealing with an ignorant and unruly child. (“Soft”? Bigotry is bigotry, plain and simple, just as discrimination is discrimination, crime is crime, justice is justice. Modifiers just complicate situations.) This phrase made me wonder if Tulare County can’t get a Trader Joe’s or keep litter off the roads because we are expected to be oblivious to the finer things of life. (Wow, talk about “lowered expectations”! I am considering a lack of litter to be a “finer thing”??)
When I take merchandise to a place to sell it on consignment, I need to put every item in its own cellophane bag. Thinking I was out of Wildflower books, a stack was returned to me from a gallery that had them on consignment. Yippee skippee! But, then I flipped them over, and each book has a non-removable price sticker. I tried a razor, coconut oil, and Goo-gone. Nope. Profit gone. Ouch.
Then I learned that if I soak the sticker in Goo-gone and leave it overnight, the sticker peels cleanly! (This is after a bit of gouging with a razor—true price-gouging.)
Found a weird word in a book: “whilom“. It means erstwhile, former, used-to-be, and is an adjective.
Train Robber’s Daughter: The Melodramatic Life of Eva Evans, 1876-1970 is a very well written history book about the daughter of Chris Evans, of Evans and Sontag infamy. So many names and places were familiar, and I congratulate Jay O’Connell on an excellent book of local history, published in 2008 and still good reading. (And a place to learn new words.)
After years of ignoring these, I finally learned a little bit about using Derwent Graphitint pencils, which I will tell you about next week.
While sick, I realized that my infirm activities don’t differ much from my normal. Reading, knitting, emailing, texting, letter writing, writing my blog, surfing the World Wide Web. . . what differed? I didn’t get up early, walk for exercise, work in the yard, paint, draw, talk on the phone, or go anywhere. So almost a completely wasted week, but not entirely.