magnolia's Profile

Interesting . . . I have a love-hate relationship with Apartment Therapy.

MG-R has promoted small time living in style of which I approve.

However, I began to see through the fine print when I began to understand that MG-R is FROM $$. My "radar" was tipped-off when I started to read many years ago about going to the Hamptons for weekends. If I was scraping by living in a miniscule apartment in NYC I would question how one would have the $$'s to spend lavish weekends in the Hamptons. Turns out, of course, that Mother owns a house on 18 acres in the Springs. Must be REALLY NICE. The NYT article points out that MG-R bought a house in the Springs 16 years ago (good for him) at age 30 for $220,000 and has spent $50,000 DECORATING (good for him, again, if you have the $$'s.)

I bought my first condo (in Chicago in 1993) at 40 for $155,500 after decades of saving and I was thrilled. And in all honesty it took years to get out of the crush of expenses that buying a condo imposes - forget decorating or furnishing.

So, MY take-away was that $$ was never an object for MG-R. The small space living was either a personal choice and/or a challenge, but not because he had to do it financially. To me, that is a bit of a SHAM.

What can you substitute for the Asian pear juice?

EEEWWW?? HOW TOTALLY GROSS.

That's my niece on the lower right on the float (in the stripped hat)! What are the chances of that?

I VERY much appreciate that you investigated the CORRECT procedure(s) for washing an American flag.

"Tossing in in the washer/dryer sounds pretty American to me" is disrespectful, IMHO. I really hope you brush up on the requirements of the display, care, treatment, and proper disposal for the American flag! It's the same uneducated response to 9/11 when people hung out flags in all sorts of inappropriate ways.

Please DON'T get me wrong - I don't mean to take you personally to task. I am not a flaming right-winged patriotic soul. Hardly. I was at the first peace march in Washington DC against the Viet Nam war and many more since.

Yet, I vote religiously (as in every single election), as a family tradition I have a copy of the Declaration of Independence posted in my apartment, I have studied the Constitution at length, and after the first time I left the US and returned, I have a valued appreciation of our flag, our national anthem (which is not the song before a ballgame starts), etc.

In fact, I learned about the proper care and display about the American flag when our family prepared to display our flag, properly outlined in black bunting when President Kennedy was assasinated. My father and I researched this. It was a true education.

My parents built our family home in 1958 and had the architect do a sketch for stationary. My parents also used a sketch of the house (or a variation, such as adding a Christmas ornament to the tree in front) as our family Christmas card each year from 1958 - 1977.

I use m-w.com most of the time, as I usually have to access at work. But like many others, I still have a love affair with the first dictionary I received.

Mine was an American Heritage dictionary - a present from my parents the Christmas before I graduated from high school. In many ways, though not really cool at the time - 1971, I realized it was the first "you are an adult now and you'll need one of these to start your independent life" presents. The flowers I stuck in the book are long wilted and gone all these years later, but I still think fondly of MY dictionary after all these years.

In the spirit of things, I usually give a dual paperback version of a dictionary and thesaurus for graduation gifts for colleague's children, particularly if I don't know if this is a typical gift anymore.

And, funny, my most dog-earred reference??? My thesaurus and my Bartlet's quotations book!!

Art: Better yet . . . did you notice the stove?

So . . . what is "green" about this?

The top Interior Design School in the country is the University of Cincinnati. I suggest you check them out. In addition to being the best, the program includes a coop program where you alternate between work and school starting in your second year.