Author: Mary Louise Eklund

  • Happy Birthday Patricia My BFF For Life

    goofin-with-statues-2

    Patricia and I have been BFFs since 5th grade for me, 4th grade for her. This photo is from 2006 when we met in Chicago with our kids and took the Gangster Tour. She’s as silly as I am. Her lack of sense of direction but ability to find cardinal points on the compass compliments my sense of finding things via landmarks and gut feeling while never being able to point to North. We enjoyed taking weekends away each year when the kids were growing up. I’m heading down to Hollywood Florida to see here sometime around the first of the year. In the meantime go wish Patricia a very happy birthday on her Facebook account.

  • Monday Marginalia – Another Trip To Biltmore

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    Those who know me know I have a penchant for Biltmore House and Gardens in Asheville, NC. I have two short stories set in a house inspired by the location. I went there often on school field trips through Middle School and High School. I once held a season pass when in High School. I quit counting my visits when it was over 30. It’s no surprise moving close and with new rooms and new tour available I wanted to go back. So we took a long weekend in early November to go to Asheville. Mike patiently went with me to my kind of Disneyland. The place is one that the more I learn about it the more interesting it becomes.

    (more…)

  • Happy Birthday Dad!

    bright-sidney-pharmist-at-lunch-counter-rexall-east-gate-shopping-center-greeneville-tn

    Today is my Dad’s birthday. Yes he’s had the unfortunate chance of being born right before Christmas. The family story is my grandmother held ice in her mouth to make her temperature seem lower so she could go home on Christmas Eve and be home for Christmas Day. So his birthday started out overshadowed by the holiday and still continues. To make the day special stop by his Facebook and wish him a Happy Birthday.

    As for the photos it’s one of my favorites.  I remember spending time at the Revco luncheon counter.  I remember Dad coming over on breaks to have coffee with us.  I always enjoyed that.  So not only is it a good pictures of Dad it brings back happy memories of a time and a thing that’s now gone.  Happy Birthday Dad!

  • Throwback Thursday – Merry Eklund Men

    1973-m-m-l-carthage-ny-xmas

    Welcome to 1973 Christmas in Carthage New York. My Mike is in the striped shirty, his brother Mark has his back to us, and Dad Len is looking smug.

  • Wednesday Words – Garbo Says Get It Right

    greta-garbo-0021
    Greta Garbo – Photo has no known copyright

    I love quotes. I also love getting them correct. One credited to Greta Garbo is “I want to be alone” but actually that’s not correct. Even Ms. Garbo tried to set the record straight…

    (more…)

  • Tuesday Thoughts – Mystery makes these Podcasts

    The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique The required US legal disclaimer: All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique

    I like mysteries. I like ones that are eventually solved and those not yet solved. I prefer real life mysteries but do enjoy a good fictional one now and again. However to feed my love of real life ones I listen to many podcasts and these are among those that answer that interest.

    (more…)

  • Monday Marginalia – My First NFL Game

    20161016_115707

    I am a football fan, particularly NFL. That finally ended on the perfect day to go to a game. The weater was great – no jacket required, but not hot. The tickets were perfect price (under $70 each). Location was perfect easy drive from our house. So on Sunday October 16th I was off to see the Tennessee Titans play the Cleveland Browns in Nashville. What follows are photos and videos of the day.

    (more…)

  • Freaky Friday – The Monster With 21 Faces

    monster-headz-by-andres-musta-18sep16
    monster headz by Andres Musta on Flickr. He has given license for use via Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic. Thanks Andres!

    If you enjoy the Japanese confection Pocky as my BFF Patricia does you might want to know about an incident in 1984-85 where the Monster with 21 Faces threatened Pocky, kidnapped an CEO, threatened another company’s confectioneries, rejoiced in the suicide of a policeman, and actually got ransoms. Apparently two faces of monster were seen then dubbed Video Tape Man and Fox Eyed Man. Honestly the further you go into the stories the far-out it seems. But in the end it’s a true crime very similar to our unsolved Tylenol Murders in the US.  If you want to know how the Monster did all of this keep reading?

    (more…)

  • Thursday Throwback – Aaron’s Second Christmas

    1993-kalamazoo-stryker-christmas

    Welcome to 1994 in Kalamazoo Michigan, this was Aaron’s second Christmas.  This photo was made at the family Christmas party Mike’s employer at the time threw each year.  Aaron is the most serious one of the bunch but then again meeting Santa is serious business when you are a 16 months old.

  • Wednesday Words – Colorful Menomic

    p-26-internet-book-archive-flickr-01oct17
    Image from page 26 of “The theory and practice of landscape painting in water-colours. Illustrated by a series of twenty-six drawings and diagrams in colours, and numerous woodcuts” (1871) provided by Internet Archive of Book Images. There are no known copyright restrictions.

    There are many ways to organize things. When it comes to colors I prefer to organize them like a rainbow. I find myself going over this menomic my 5th grade teacher taught me. I was surprised when I met some people who didn’t know it. So I share with you how to remember the order of the colors of a prism/rainbow.

    (more…)