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Announcing Leslie’s Jewelry Website + Open Thread

Susan created a great ad for my recently launched online jewelry store, thank you! [See below: My ad is right above Keith Olbermann's—so it's in really good company!]

Please stop by and visit here and let me know what you think? I’ll continue adding content….

Meanwhile, what’s the latest Bushie news?

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    Congratulations on your beautiful new site, Leslie. Elegant design — but that wouldn’t make a difference if all of the jewelry weren’t so stunning.

    Here’s my Bushie tidbit, the title of my morning newsletter from MSNBC’s First Read that cracked me up:

    First Read: Bush risking credibility?

    Uh, I think we’ve crossed that bridge …

    The first story:

    *** Risking Credibility? Twenty-nine days until Iowa. Despite the new National Intelligence Estimate, Bush is still talking tough on Iran – as are the GOP presidential candidates. Thompson yesterday questioned the accuracy of the intelligence, which concluded that Iran had stopped its nuclear program in 2003. (Of course, there’s irony here since intel was such a debacle regarding Iraq.) McCain also seemed to question the report. And Giuliani is up with a new TV ad in New Hampshire that links Iran with terrorists. “I remember back to the 1970s and the early 1980s. Iranian mullahs took American hostages and they held the American hostages for 444 days. And they released the American hostages in one hour, and that should tell us a lot about these Islamic terrorists that we’re facing.” Are the Republican presidential candidates risking credibility here, particularly McCain and Giuliani, who are both trying to appeal to the normally skeptical New Hampshire independents? One thing is for sure: They still want to talk about Iran. But what happens when you keep talking about an Iran that no longer seems so threatening?

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      He’s risking credibility N-O-W? Where’s MSNBC been for the last 7 years!? Sheesh.

  • http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

    Excellant website leslie..you are very talented.
    You know what is popular also.. Those dang diamond tennis braclets…

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      Thanks Hoopster!

      Hmm, what color diamonds do you fancy? ;) [Mean your wife and your daughters.]

  • Shirin

    Wow Leslie! Lovely designs! Congratulations.

    I’m gonna have to stay away from THAT site for sure.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      Thanks Shirin!

      Noooo! Your eyelids are getting heavy, you’re falling into a deep, deep sleep…you’re thinking about jewelry…. :)

      • Shirin

        Pearlssssssss…….

        Garnetssssssssss……

        Rubiesssssssssssss…….

  • Bill Keyes

    Nice website Leslie and beautiful jewelry,,,

    Ok all you males out there get those credit cards out and start that x-mas shopping!!!!! I know most of you are probably still procrastinating!! (Don’t be like Ed Mcmahon and leave it too the last minute!)

    A short true male jewelry shopping story BOLS(before on line shopping)

    When my two daughters were in their teens they used to help old dad with something for my wife for x-mas. One year I went ahead to the estate jewelry Dept at May Co in St louis and after much looking decided on a ring. The next day I took the girls back to the store and proudly showed them what, for the first time in many years, I actually picked out myself. They took one look and exclaimed.”That’s way too small for mom…get this bigger one!!” Needless to say I did and it was a big hit with the Mrs and it was our little secret for years!! They also made me promise to never go shopping again without them.

    An update on a local story…

    Border ceremony honors boy’s lifesaver

    Read about it here….

    http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/214866

    • wethornet

      it is a heartwarming tale. here’s 4 paragraphs of it.

      The oft-repeated story goes like this: At about 5 p.m. Thanksgiving evening west of Peña Blanca Lake, about 60 miles southwest of Tucson, Córdova encountered Christopher in shorts and a T-shirt walking with his golden retriever, Tanner.
      Christopher and his mother, Dawn Alice Tomko, 45, had been camping in the area. While driving on a narrow dirt road, she lost control of their van, hit an embankment and fell off a cliff about 275 feet. She died. Christopher and his dogs walked away with only bumps and bruises. (Wethornet here: his Dad had committed suicide a couple of months prior.)

      Córdova, who had been walking alone for 2 1/2 days in his second attempt at illegal entry into the country, stayed with the boy through the night, building a fire, getting him food and giving him a sweater. In the morning, he found a pair of hunters who called authorities.

      Christopher was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson and Córdova turned himself in to Border Patrol agents and was returned to Mexico that same day.

  • Dee Loralei

    Leslie, beautiful stuff. I’m no longer amazed at all the intelligent,creative and talented people who populate the comments section here. That’s some mighty fine company we keep.

    Best of luck to you in this new business.

  • http://wpthemesplugin.com Moses Francis

    The site looks good, not to mention the jewelries!

    All the best!

  • Taters

    Absolutely lovely, Leslie. Kudos!

  • wethornet

    Recently, I have discussed how important I think humor, esp. in difficult times, is. In my newly, self-appointed role as (one of) the H.H.O.s, Humor Hygiene Officer(s), (…snark…does that make me a ho? …Jes’ wundering…), I submit the following which came over the transom, OK, email, from Mrs. W.H.
    ***

    The Atheist.

    An atheist was walking through the woods.
    “What majestic trees”!
    “What powerful rivers”!
    “What beautiful animals”!
    He said to himself.

    As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him.

    He ran as fast as he could up the path.

    He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was closing in on him.

    He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer.

    He tripped & fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw & raising his right paw to strike him. At that instant the Atheist cried out, “Oh my God!”

    Time Stopped.
    The bear froze.
    The forest was silent.

    As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky.

    “You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don’t exist and even credit creation to cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer”?

    The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to
    treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps you could make the BEAR a Christian”?

    “Very well,” said the voice.

    The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed.

    And the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head & spoke: “Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

  • Kathleen

    Leslie gorgeous,elegant, classy. Good Luck with sales. Valerie Plame Wilson sure would look great in a pair of those ear rings.

  • Kathleen

    Interesting talk in the blogosphere this morning

    http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/

    http://www.crooksandliars.com/

    Amy Goodmans Democracy Now.

    Amy has Elbaradei recording in response to the NIE report “the finding of the US intelligence report is consistent with the Iaea’s findings”

    http://www.democracynow.org/

  • Kathleen

    AIPAC: Intelligence makes case against Iran
    12/04/2007

    AIPAC says a U.S. national intelligence estimate bolsters the case to isolate Iran.

    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee was reacting to a report that the assessments by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, declassified this week, is that Iran suspended a nuclear weapons program in 2003.

    AIPAC spokesman Josh Block told JTA that if anything, the report showed that Iran had advanced further than was publicly known.

    “Far from acquitting Iran, the NIE reveals that Tehran continues to violate the international community’s calls to end the pursuit of the fuel cycle and the ability to make highly enriched uranium, concludes that Iran has utilized and has at its disposal a hidden, secret second unacknowledged, unmonitored track for enriching bomb fuel, and has engaged in a nuclear weaponization program, an assessment never before made public by the American intelligence community,” Block said. “All in all, it’s a clarion call for additional and continued effort to pressure Iran economically and politically to end its illicit nuclear programs.”

  • Kathleen

    Increasing the inflammatory rhetoric
    at Jewish Telegraphic Agency JTA
    IAF chief draws Iran-Hitler link

    Published: 12/05/2007

    The commander of the Israeli Air Force urged his top brass to consider Iran’s president a possible modern Hitler.

    Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedi recently distributed a letter to senior Air Force commanders in which he noted the similarities between Adolf Hitler’s pre-Holocaust rhetoric and the anti-Israel vitriol of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    “These statements, at this time, are becoming relevant in light of the direct and veiled threats of the Iranian president about the existence of the State of Israel,” read the letter, which was leaked to Yediot Achronot. “The words take on special meaning in light of Iran’s efforts to build its military nuclear capabilities and deliver systems the can reach Israel.

    “We must remember and not forget. We must rely only on ourselves,” Shkedi concluded.

    Shkedi is the Israeli military officer entrusted with contingency planning for a war with Iran, and his pilots have been training for long-range bombing runs. The Israeli Air Force is also in charge of missile defense systems.

    Shkedi’s deputy, Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel, led an F-15 warplane formation that flew over Auschwitz in 2003, a ceremony designed to underscore Israel’s vow to use military power to prevent a repeat of the Holocaust.

  • Kathleen

    http://www.forward.com/articles/12203/

    Intel Bombshell Sends Community Scrambling To Hold Line on Iran Threat
    Israel Challenges U.S. Spies’ Report
    By Marc Perelman
    Wed. Dec 05, 2007

    “American Jewish groups are scrambling to reformulate their message on Iran following the release this week of a new American intelligence report that states with “high confidence” that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago.

    In a conference call Tuesday hurriedly arranged by the umbrella body of Jewish organizations, communal leaders decided to immediately send letters to the presidential candidates from both parties, urging them to continue pushing for sanctions against Iran.

    According to participants in the conference call, concern is high that the unexpected conclusions drawn in the National Intelligence Estimate not only may lead Washington to withdraw the threat of military action against Iran but may also erode the recently reached international consensus on pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.”

  • Kathleen

    CALL YOUR REPS LET THEM KNOW THAT YOU WANT THEM TO SUPPORT THE NIE REPORT AND THE IAEA’S FINDINGS.

    NOT AIPACS INFLAMMATORY RHETORIC!

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      VoteVets.org has a letter-writing campaign for just this purpose — targeting each of our members of Congress. It’s surely linked on their home page / if you sign up, you’ll get those notices in your e-mail.

  • Kathleen
    • Kathleen

      If you listen to the clip at Raw Story of Biden talking more about the possibility of Impeachment and how the US “has lost credibility”. This is the second time this week that Chris Matthews has referred to the incomplete Phase II of the Senate Select Committee on INtelligence. This I found odd since very few people talk about the incomplete report on the false pre-war intelligence.

      Is this report (Phase II of the SSCI) to be released soon? When John Dean last came to FDL

      http://firedoglake.com/2007/10/14/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-john-dean-2/

      I asked him about why Senator Rockefeller had not completed the investigation of the Office of
      Special Plans and asked why Douglas Feith and other fabricators will still running free. Dean mentioned that he did not have any more confidence in Senator Rockefeller any more than Republican Senator Pat Roberts who we know did everything in his power to divert, delay and dilute that investigation.

  • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

    Thank you everyone for the kind comments and well wishes!

  • davis13

    So I go to Larry Johnson’s site to get the latest on world shaking news on the cutting edge to find …jewelry?

    Who cares about jewelry or the tens of thousands of sites dedicated to it? Come on people. Come on Larry, are you hawking products and having sales now?

    (shakes head)

    • Kathleen

      I agree

      • Kathleen

        Although no different than Firedoglake bloggers writing about their dogs, kids, music etc. Or Huffington Post bloggers writing about movie stars.

        I appreciate being able to come here to read Larry , Susans and others insights and share my concerns and share what I am reading.

        Leslie’s jewelry is beautiful. And by the way Leslie I have friends who are jewelers and they have had their jewelry in galleries in communities like Boulder,Aspen, Vale. You may have all ready tried this route for sales.

    • http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

      davis: quit shaking your head and sit up straight..
      counting the last 80 threads/posts at NQ. there is one about leslie’s new site and a new book by lang.
      If you can’t find an overabundance of data/opinion/references/news over the last 30 days..I don’t know what to tell you…
      But just to be a service to your skepical mind..
      recent posts.

      30: What The Huck Is Going On? (With Other Friday Night Open Thread Profanities Allowed) (71)
      30: Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues (15)
      29: Mental Midget Bullshit (86)
      29: Perle-y Wisdom OPEN THREAD (46)
      28: Sam Provance, Joe & Valerie Wilson, and Ron Slater (21)
      27: Happy Campaign Trails + OPEN THREAD (79)
      27: Bush Doesn’t Resent Gore for Election 2000 (15)
      26: Four Days in Iraq: And this Means the Surge is Working? (57)
      25: Drone Sez Security and Ethics Are So Last Year! (17)
      25: Did Security Contractors Kill Colonel Westhusing? (55)
      25: Surge Success, But Ignore the Benchmarks (14)
      24: Saturday Night Leftovers (35)
      23: The Al Qaeda Exaggeration (78)
      23: Tracking Americans by Cell Phone + Friday Open Thread (67)
      23: Afghanistan Is Falling (30)
      23: Treason is Not Old News (62)
      22: I AM FULL! (And You?) + OPEN THREAD (7)
      21: It Ain’t the Pentagon, It is Congress (35)
      21: George Bush, Traitor and Liar in Chief (95)
      20: Bush’s Contempt for Our Soldiers (18)
      20: Why is Obama in Bed with Karl Rove? (108)
      20: The Presidential Candidates on Iran (72)
      19: … Just Cuz It Fits Larry’s Post Below … (24)
      18: The True Economic Cost of Iraq (76)
      18: Sunday Is For Contact Sports (& Mo’ Open Threads) (40)
      17: Albert Collins (38)
      17: Electronic Politics Asks: “What Is Torture?” (7)
      16: Friday Fizzle, Sizzle + WIDE OPEN THREAD (52)
      15: Political Junkies’ Thursday News & Rants (23)
      14: Pay No Attention to This Spy Scandal, Move Along (78)
      14: Ground Truth in Iraq (20)
      14: A Paean to Sidney Blumenthal (and his writings about Bush’s tyranny and his administration’s “squalor”) (3)
      14: Knee-Slappin’ HOWLERS for the Day (add your own too) (41)
      14: “F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause” (6)
      13: UPDATED/EXCLUSIVE: “Iran: Realities, Options, and Consequences” (27)
      13: The Marlboro Man: He’s A Real Human Being (21)
      13: Shed Some Real Tears (And Where’s That Cheap Oil?) (10)
      13: Boo-Hoo-Hoo: The Whiners’ OPEN THREAD (71)
      12: The Winds Are Kicking Up Again … (20)
      12: The Winds Blow and Blow and Blow … (11)
      11: What George Orwell and Gordon Brown Don’t Know (29)
      10: The Pakistani Democracy Chimera (74)
      10: The Drone and the Falafel Watchlist (9)
      10: About Military Enlistments: Just Asking (4)
      10: Hooey-liani’s Best Bud Needs Our Help ($$$) (17)
      09: Go-Green “30 Rock” Rawks | OPEN THREAD (13)
      09: My roots are being destroyed by my branches (12)
      09: Daddy Drinks the Kool-Aid (48)
      09: Bhutto Behind Barbed Wire & More Friday News (19)
      08: Picket Fences (76)
      08: Bernanke, Bush, and Hagel: Hot News (21)
      08: Waterboarding: We Won’t Let This One Go (32)
      07: How to Win Friends and Influence People (20)
      07: The Latest from Pakistan (13)
      07: OPEN THREAD for Neanderthals (16)
      07: “7 Countries Considering Abandoning the US Dollar” (17)
      07: When Lunatic Thinking Hits the Mainstream (15)
      07: Striking Writers Working for Bush? (17)
      07: Are We Preparing to Nuke Iran (29)
      06: A Reality Check on Iran Policy and U.S. Campaign Politics (23)
      06: Bush’s Secret Nuclear Strike Plans (17)
      05: Pakistan Was a Bad Idea (17)
      05: “Do Unto Others…” (16)
      05: Urgent: Letter from Intelligence, Military, Diplomatic, and Law Enforcement Professionals (162)
      04: The Iran Crisis: Positive Signs? (28)
      04: Torture: Our U.S. Military Makes Me Proud (12)
      03: Foreign Service Whiners and So-called Success (43)
      03: The Wilson’s Get Real (20)
      03: Our National Shame: Iraqi Refugees (27)
      03: The Media’s Stampeding Herd (7)
      02: Friday Night Follies & OPEN THREAD (18)
      02: And You Wonder Why I Haven’t Registered As a Democrat (116)
      01: Valerie Plame Wilson Appearances (36)
      01: Waterboarding is Torture… Period (Links Updated # 4) (20)
      01: Malignant Fantasies of Fearsome Power (52)

    • Shirin

      Oh, lighten up! If you don’t want to look at Leslie’s jewelry, then don’t click on the link. If you don’t want to read about jewelry, then skip that part.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      Davis,
      Lighten up! Larry’s blog is all about the news. But, on occasion, his volunteers, such as myself, are given the space to get personal or go off-topic. That doesn’t hurt building a sense of blog community either.

  • Kathleen

    This interview with Gordon Prather’s is interesting. He shares his perspective which seems to be that the NIE report was released to undermine Elbaradei’s soon to be released report saying that Iran never had a Nuclear weapons program. He infers that Stephen Hadley is trying to create the idea that Iran had had a Nuclear weapons program. Listen for yourself

    http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/12/06/gordon-prather-4/

    • Shirin

      What actual evidence is there that Iran actually had a nuclear weapons program? If IAEA does say they never had one, why should we believe the CIA over them, particularly knowing the degree to which the CIA has been politicized under the current regime?

  • TeakwoodKite

    Great work Leslie….you have anything with Star Safire? Best of luck. You do fine work.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      TeakwoodKite,
      Go to my website and email me your vision, OK?

  • Shirin

    Leslie, if you ever have anything with opals, I will probably be a goner! That is my favourite gemstone. I have a collection of maybe 20-25 loose opals that I just like to take out and look at from time to time. Maybe one day I will have some of them set into jewelry – or maybe not.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      Shirin,
      Oh opals are beautiful! Email me what you imagine? I do commissions.

      • http://www.food4humanity.org hoosierhoops

        Shirin: have you ever seen Fire Opals from australia? Beautiful..

        • Shirin

          I collect them.

  • P J Evans

    Leslie, it’s a good thing (for me, if not for you) that I already blew my budget for the rest of the year. Your work is spectacular!

  • Thinker

    Now this is interesting. At last I have an opportunity to ‘nail it’. I won’t be a buyer of Leslie’s jewelry (I think – but in the future, who can tell!), but I wish her well and have no objection to the brief advert, but someone did object.

    This is what I mean about exteme prejudice and misuse of “abuse”, the misuse of what it is to be deeply offended.

    I think it is about time society applied the MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS rule to its many complainers and crusaders. This, in my opinion, should be applied to the many difficult subjects I bring to this board.

    Abuse if rightly described when real, but there are so many phantom weapons of mass descruction “we” all take for granted.

  • http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

    Well it is open thread..
    Leslie: It’s a little late for me to order something from you for Xmas..but after the new year let’s look at something special for my daughter Nicole..She is doing undergrad work at UC Davis. I want her to have something special to always wear to remind her of how much her dad loves her..and how much her family misses her back home in Indiana. You may recall the hoopster went to college in california and she is following my footsteps. Her expertise in Agriculture will bode well for a high paying career in Indiana someday..we hope..I never thought she would be so inclined to study high tech farming..she has the brains in the family..( was hoping for a doctor but that’s just between us )
    All of our kids played sports except nikki..she has trouble with frisbee..she will be back home for xmas break in another 10 days so we’re really excited..
    I sent a pic of Jordan to Susan to send you and i’ll send one of nikki to her to send you..She is very beautiful and makes the boys swoon..we are very proud of her..It’s funny..a future farmer? hahaha

    Davis13..How’s this working out for you..a dang gone jewery and family post on NQ..sorry about your luck..

    So leslie..My favorite place to go shopping is the diamond district in Philly. Ever been there?
    My mom worked in a high class jewery store when i was growing up and she used to teach me about facets and clarity.. ( It really went over my head but the hoopster is a slow learner.)
    BUT.. I bought a teardrop diamond for an engagement ring from the diamond district many years ago..
    I may be slow..but i’m not dumb..hehehehe.
    Well I’ll stop now…i may wear out my open thread welcome…

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      Hoopster,
      Your son Jordan is handsome! Loved getting his picture. [Just hope he stays safe and returns home soon!] Would love to see a picture of Nicole too!

      My mother’s side of the family is originally from Philly, Strawberry Mansions. My great grandfather, a former Ruskie engineer, ran a “hot” ice cream shop there in the 1930s-40s. He used to pull taffy in the basement, and he made wonderful ice cream flavors before Baskin Robbins. His motto was whatever the customer wants. A wisenheimer once asked for a mustard sundae. So my great grandmother made him a hot fudge sundae and dipped the straw in mustard. His first taste was a mustard sundae!

      But I’ve never been there. The diamond district in NYC is fantastic too. They have everything…. Shirin was talking about opals above…I’ve seen opals that’d knock your socks off and diamonds of every hue. It’s fun to go there! I like to look at minerals, not just gemstones.

      P.S. Davis,
      Yup, we talk about jewelry, civil war novels, musical anecdotes, and lots of personal stuff here at NQ. Oh well.

      • Shirin

        I have some pretty opals, but I would not say any of them would knock your socks off. A lot of them are white opals, which have pastel fire – that appeals to me. And I have others that are more brightly coloured.

        Oh – and I have a number of opal carvings, most of which don’t have a lot of fire, but some of them do, especially the smaller ones.

        I looked at the collection tonight, and remembered that I have a fairly pretty pair of small, white opals that would make nice earrings, so if I ever feel inclined to have some jewelry made, I will get in touch with you about it. In a way it is a shame to just keep them all hidden away and only look at them from time to time, but it is my pleasure, and they are mine, so there!

    • wethornet

      Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
      by Barbara Kingsolver

      Hoopster, thank you. You have given me a chance to get on my “soapbox” and wax enthusiastic about 3 or 4 most important books out there in America today, covering one of the most important activities that we as human beings do: EAT. I feel every American should either check it out of your local library or purchase a copy. It was a pure delight to read on many levels.

      I am feeling frustrated (urggg) that I can’t do justice to how important this book is, as well as how fun it was to read. I want y’all to consider clicking on the link and reading about, and maybe buying a copy, or checking it of your local library. We all need good gifts for folks for Christmas.

      Hoopster, I can almost guarantee that Nicole will love it. I feel safe in predicting that she will have finished the book before heading back to school.

      cont’d.

      • wethornet

        (apologies if this is a duplicate. computer is acting fussy.)

        Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.
        by Barbara Kingsolver

        Main Amazon.com review, which came from Publisher’s Weekly.

        Michael Pollan is the crack investigator and graceful narrator of the ecology of local food and the toxic logic of industrial agriculture. Now he has a peer. Novelist Kingsolver recounts a year spent eating home-grown food and, if not that, local. Accomplished gardeners, the Kingsolver clan grow a large garden in southern Appalachia and spend summers “putting food by,” as the classic kitchen title goes. They make pickles, chutney and mozzarella; they jar tomatoes, braid garlic and stuff turkey sausage. Nine-year-old Lily runs a heritage poultry business, selling eggs and meat. What they don’t raise (lamb, beef, apples) comes from local farms. Come winter, they feast on root crops and canned goods, menus slouching toward asparagus. Along the way, the Kingsolver family, having given up industrial meat years before, abandons its vegetarian ways and discovers the pleasures of conscientious carnivory.This field—local food and sustainable agriculture—is crowded with books in increasingly predictable flavors: the earnest manual, diary of an epicure, the environmental battle cry, the accidental gardener. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is all of these, and much smarter. Kingsolver takes the genre to a new literary level; a well-paced narrative and the apparent ease of the beautiful prose makes the pages fly. Her tale is both classy and disarming, substantive and entertaining, earnest and funny. Kingsolver is a moralist (“the conspicuous consumption of limited resources has yet to be accepted widely as a spiritual error, or even bad manners”), but more often wry than pious. Another hazard of the genre is snobbery. You won’t find it here. Seldom do paeans to heirloom tomatoes (which I grew up selling at farmers’ markets) include equal respect for outstanding modern hybrids like Early Girl.Kingsolver has the ear of a journalist and the accuracy of a naturalist. She makes short, neat work of complex topics: what’s risky about the vegan diet, why animals belong on ecologically sound farms, why bitterness in lettuce is good. Kingsolver’s clue to help greenhorns remember what’s in season is the best I’ve seen. You trace the harvest by botanical development, from buds to fruits to roots. Kingsolver is not the first to note our national “eating disorder” and the injuries industrial agriculture wreaks, yet this practical vision of how we might eat instead is as fresh as just-picked sweet corn. The narrative is peppered with useful sidebars on industrial agriculture and ecology (by husband Steven Hopp) and recipes (by daughter Camille), as if to show that local food—in the growing, buying, cooking, eating and the telling—demands teamwork. (May)Nina Planck is the author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why

  • liberalbuffet

    To those of you who not think Leslie’s jewelry does not deserve a link on this site, consider this>> I am female, I do not get on my Mac to shop for goodies much, (but I do sometimes) Im a person who wants to know the news and whats going on in it this world, that is why I like Larrys blog. I looked at Leslies site and found it to be very nice! For people like me, it was a nice moment to look at something made in the USA! >>I hope its made in the USA!?!? Let me know Leslie! I really want to shop American these days, so if Larry has anyone else who makes something home grown, please list it here!

    • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

      Liberalbuffet,
      Yes, it’s made in the USA by me in NYC. Everything is handmade. I buy all my supplies in the US too. Although the gems and metals may not have originated in the US. Also, regarding blood diamonds, there are safeguards in place now to prevent their sale, but the safeguards aren’t foolproof. However, I only buy from reputable dealers.

      • Centrocitta

        Leslie is a New Yorker. Obviously, she has common East Coast ethics and values and no doubt, her products are hand-made in NYC and of good quality.

        I wish I could say the same for the Texas “artisan” I met in May of 1990, when I attended a craft-fair in Austin. I purchased a colorful, patchwork leather top that was sewn together with black cording. The seller (a woman from Texas) proudly said she had made it herself. The following year as I disembarked from a cruise ship in Istanbul, Turkey, I was disappointed to see a Turkish vendor selling the EXACT same item at a stand just past the customs area.

        Apparently, the dishonest woman in Austin took the same vacation I did, bought several of these items, and then passed them off as her own at the craft fair. This was my first, good look at how different ethics and values can be in a place like Texas as compared to the East Coast. We Americans are definitely NOT all alike.

  • wethornet

    Larry, Susan, Leslie, please consider making this a seperate entry as we did with the U.S. Marine, Marlboro Man story.

    All, perhaps the greatest song of this war has been written: “Christmas in Fallujah” has been written. Billy Joel and Cass Dillon performed it in concert the other night. You can see it and hear it courtesy via YouTube. (Link below.)

    Background: Cass Dillon is an emerging artist from Long Island. The musical legend Billy Joel is also from Long Island. I don’t know the story of how they linked up, but they did. Billy Joel could have sung it but, very wisely in my judgement, wanted a younger voice, someone the age of the servicemen and women in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    I don’t know the story, but I think some of the proceeds are helping a nonprofit, Homes For Our Troops, that builds/modifys houses for wounded warriors. They have projects going on all over the U.S. of A. (Some group that monitors charities gave them an award which only a small percentage of charities get; some charities are a scam.) Link below.

    (H/t to the veteran, Austin Moran who brought it to my attention on the Veterans For Peace, VFP, list. One of the greatest joys of my life is belonging to VFP. Anyone can be a member, veterans, civilians can be an affiliate member. Btw, that’s a big honker of a hint. ;-) Link below.)

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=an7v6I2Bruo

    http://www.homesforourtroops.org/site/PageServer

    http://www.veteransforpeace.org/about_vfp.vp.html

    I’m quoting from memory here:

    “One day our grandchildren will sing great songs about us.”
    Richard Perle, chief f*cktard of the neocons, at the beginning of this war, which he lusted & labored for so much.

    Wethornet comment Richard: “You are absolutely right. And this is what they will listen to buckwheat. Ha, ha. (pause)…Oh, and btw, what Army Infantry outfit are your sons in? Didn’t think so.”

    • wethornet

      ps. Hoosier Hoops, I’m thinking of your Jordan. May the angels watch over him.

      • http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

        That’s wethornet..
        I’m emailing the youtube link you posted to him..’Christmans in Falluja’ He’ll love it!

  • Cee

    Leslie,

    Beautiful! Perhaps you might consider using some simulated gems in the future.
    I don’t buy the real stuff anymore because I don’t know how it was mined, polished and such.

  • wethornet

    Hoopster, I can almost guarantee that Nicole will love it. I feel safe in predicting that she will have finished the book before heading back to school.

    Hoopster, all. I had two seperate posts going. What got left out: “Hoopster, given what you wrote about your little girl, I suggest you and Mrs. H. buy her a copy of the book for Christmas. If that works for you of course.” Then I added the guarantee, & read b4 going back to school bit.

    (Shifting tone here to humorous. Let’s see Hoopster, Jordan’s got the video, Nicole’s got a book, …ya got any more kids that I can help out with? :-) )

    • http://www.food4humanity.org hoosierhoops

      Wethornet:
      4 boys..2 girls..
      :)

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