The sketchy and inconsistent blog of Bethie Engstrom...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

47 Years Overdue, Book is Returned to Library

Patron pays $171.32 late fee for “Prince of Egypt”

{from The Associated Press} --- Robert Nuranen handed the local librarian a book he had checked out for a ninth-grade assignment – along with a check for 47 years’ worth of late fees.
Nuranen said his mother misplaced the copy of “Prince of Egypt” while cleaning the house. The family came across it every so often, only to set it aside again. He found it last week while looking through a box in the attic.
“I figured I’d better get it in before we waited another 10 years,” he said after turning it in Friday with the $171.32 check. “Fifty-seven years would be embarrassing.”
The book, with its last due date stamped June 2, 1960, was part of the young Nuranen’s fascination with Egypt. He went on to visit that country and 54 others, and all 50 states, he said, but he never did finish the book.
Nuranen now lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches seventh-grade social studies and language arts.
The library had long ago lost any record of the book, librarian Sue Zubiena said.
“I’m going to use it as a example,” she said. “It’s never to late to return you books.”

This is a article clipped from The Seattle Times, dated Monday, January 8, 2007 … I found it with a bunch of other loose papers in some of my old school bins. It made me laugh and I thought to share it.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Thought Provoking Tuesday {more "funny" then "provoking"}

Here's a good one ... and I secretly hope its true. =)
Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented.
It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden".
And thus, the word GOLF (and the sport) entered into the English language.


(tell me if you don't get it)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Bliss

What before had been little eggs are now hatched ducklings!
I am so glad that they are finally out
(you can see with the egg cloese to you a little punch where it was starting to peep out)

(only a few hours old)

They eat, sleep, drink, poop and sleep
They are Darling!

Oh and, were going to name them all with Italian names! Do you have any ideas for them?

(they are peeping at me as I type)


Thursday, April 8, 2010

Thought Provoking Tuesday...er Thursday Part II

A answer to the last TPT was answered by a Thursday (funny me doing this on a
thursday too huh?). Here's the answer Thursday gave to me:

"According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the English word "orange" was imported around 1300 AD from Old French, "orenge". The French got it from the Latin "pomum de orenge", which came in turn from the Italian, "arancia". When the Italians first began using it, though, it was "narancia" or "naranza", because they got it from Venetian sailors trading with the Arabs, who called it "naranj" because they learned of the fruit from the Persians who called it "narang" because that's what the Indians, who first cultivated oranges, called it in Sanskrit - "naranga", "orange tree".

(Maybe that's why nothing rhymes properly with "orange"...)

Anyway, it wasn't used to describe a color until 1542, a couple centuries after it was used in English to begin with, so the color must have been named after the fruit! :D "
Thanks so much Thursday!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Be There Faeries

One of my favorite things to do when I'm not drawing or writing (not much of that lately, sad) or other crafty things; is that you may find me among baskets of ferns, dried flowers, veries of leaves and a needle and some green thread.
But what to do with these ingredients?

Why not make some faerie gowns?

A summer gown that is more dressy then anything else - perhaps for your cousins wedding or a dance by the meadow edge.
A winter gown, worn with silky spiders web legings will keep any spirited faerie warm while flying from one celebration to another.


{my mother called this a Hippy Faerie outfit... I guess it does look like it but I would wear it... if I were4 inches tall} Something to wear while roaming and having adventures.

Something more dressy - while funky at the same time.


Perhaps a nice gown for a stroll by the creek in the cool evening. Maple leaf shawl included.

Then a ball gown that will have all the other faeries heads turning.

Soon to come:
Male Faerie Apparel