They HAVE run their course.

Hey look!  The Oregonian wants to know if Ziggy and Family Circus have run their course.  Really?  Do you  need to ask?  In fact, while we are on the topic, here's a list of  other daily comics that have run their course:
Hagar the Horrible
Blondie
Wizard of ID
Hi and Lois
Peanuts (sorry to say, but it's true)
Garfield
Freshly Squeezed

Oregonian readers are blessed with two full pages of daily comics.  How about making them all comics of note, not warmed-over plots that have been recirculating for years.

Three sentence movie reviews: Safety Not Guranteed

In my mind, the best kind of movie is where a character, or characters, if you are lucky, go through some sort of transformation over the course of the movie.  Based on that criteria, this movie was fabulous: simple story, interesting and not unlikable characters, and kind of quirky. Overall, this movie was made of some simple parts, but they all came together so well that I greatly enjoyed myself, and was reminded that this is why I love to watch movies.*

Cost:  $1.00 from Videorama ($1.00 Thursdays!  How lucky am I?)
Where watched:  at home.

*Have you not heard of this movie?  Well, you should watch it because there is a reason it was the Laurelhurst Theater's longest running movie of 2012.
Also:  the extras have a great story about how the text for the ad came about.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2012/safety_not_guaranteed.html

Postcard from Australia

This beautiful postcard was sent from Australia, but the person who sent it had just returned from Singapore, where they celebrated Chinese New Year and this postcard is actually from Singapore, not Australia.   So international, Postcrossing is.  They also gave me a George Carlin quote:  "Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away."
 

And look at this darling stamp!
 

Radio. No static.

It's been years since I've had crystal clear radio reception.  Or even good, solid radio reception.  We have lived in this house for six years and the floor of house above us that is not ours blocks the really good radio reception.  It wasn't bad until my stereo receiver died.  The next receiver I bought did not get very good reception at all.    Before, I just had to construct a coat hanger antenna and not stand in a specific place and things weren't too bad.  With the new receiver all I could do was try to ignore the static.

Enter this little gem.  I spent way too much money on it, but I'm flush with my tax return and this was my big splurge. It sits on the shelf next to the stereo (it can even sit sideways) and suddenly my NPR reception is a beautiful, beautiful thing.  It's also quite pretty and simple.  I love it.
 

Postcard from Brasil

Some people on Postcrossing are very specific in their dislike of advertising cards.  After getting this postcard, I have to agree with them.  The front is this nice picture, and the back is a map of how to get to this picture.  The person who sent it did not include any greeting or even information about the country of origin.  I haven't been on Postcrossing long enough to get picky, but I can say that this was not my favorite postcard experience.   

Portland youth, back view, circa 2013

Note the four layers displayed on the torso:  T-shirt, another t-shirt, hoodie and jacket.  I loved the color of this jacket.

Ka-shard-ee-ans

For some reason, my  mind refuses to pronounce the "famous" reality family's name correctly.  I don't think I've ever seen them in anything but print media, having never seen any of their reality shows. Still, just from that exposure I can probably give you a pretty full synopsis of their lives. Here they are dominating 3 of 4 magazine covers in my checkout line at the grocery store.