Found in Laredo

It's 2022 & about time I reconnect with my Tumblr blog.  Plenty has changed since I found myself in Laredo & eventually started this blog. Still am a participant observer, even after 24 years here.  My Spanish still mostly sucks (I keep working on it off & on).  The pandemic kinda threw me (& zillions of other humans around the globe) into a strange, new (?) world - Sideways Time.  Odd how now I talk about things as happening "before the pandemic." Because I lost 11.5 months assisting Health Dept w/ contact tracing (6/2020-June 2021. More like went through a wormhole- returning to the library  where it seemed nothing had changed much. Those years are some weird amorphous blob of time.  Thus, time to get back to Tumblr! Here is Original intro (2013!): It came to me a few months ago, as I was taking a lunch time walk in the Depot (?) neighborhood of the city (Laredo, TX), that my poor blog has now found its voice; its reason for being - to share my quirky perspective of this fascinating and frustrating city on the Tex-Mex border. The Gateway City. To some extent (to a large extent, actually), I am an outsider; a participant observer, if you will. I've lived here over 15 years and still get asked, "you're not from here, are you?"

[varsoviana]

The New Streets of Laredo – Texas Monthly

The New Streets of Laredo

As state politicians focus on danger and cartel violence, the border town's downtown is undergoing a renaissance.

Interesting article - worth reading. Folks ask me if I'm going to leave Laredo after I retire at the end of June.

I might feel like a participant observer at times, but I can't imagine leaving.

[realgrumpycat]

10 years ago, on April 4th, 2012, Grumpy Cat was born. Her adorable frown has been making people around the world smile ever since. Thank you to all of Grumpy’s fans who keep her spirit alive every day.

#HappyBirthdayGrumpyCat 🎂😾🎉

#GrumpyCatForever #TeamGrumpy

[atticuspoems]

[antiqueanimals]

Animals in House and Gardens, Raintree Publishers, 1988.

[redlipstickresurrected]

Matteo Massagrande (Italian, b. 1959, Padua, Italy) - La Porta sul Giardino, 2018, Paintings: Oil, Mixed Media on Board

[varsoviana]

Look at the floor tile..."pasta tile"? (see my posts on "Laredo porch tile"

[usnatarchives]

Ascension Community High School librarian Suanne Gordon reshelves books after a school renovation, a project of the U.S. military and Guyana Defense Force. 9/5/1997, NARA ID 6504646.

National School Librarian Day!

By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

Today we honor the hard-working school librarians who patiently helped us find three sources for every paper, guided our debate team research, and brainstormed creative approaches to National History Day topics. Special shout out to Larry Rakow of Shaker High, circa 1980s!

Librarian at the card files at a high school in New Ulm MN, 10/1974. NARA ID 558218.

"Librarian," from Labor Dept's "Stock Photos Depicting Various Occupations, 2002 - 2007, NARA ID 81235343.

Librarian in the National Archives Library 1955. NARA ID 122213574.

"The Librarian Carefully Enters the Consignment Into Her Books" 12/1952. NARA ID 23932351

Librarian at Camp Lee, VA, WWI, NARA ID 20801744.

WPA-staffed library in Charlestown, IN. 8/26/1941. NARA ID 518271.

See also: Books, Boots & Bridles: The Packhorse Librarians

Pack Horse Librarian Delivering Books to Children, 1/11/1938, NARA ID 148728416. During the Depression, this Works Progress Administration/New Deal program brought books to eager readers in the far corners of Appalachia. FDR Library Education Specialist Jeffrey Urbin shares the story of FDR’s Pack Horse Library initiative carried out almost entirely by women. Watch the video.

Pack Horse Librarians, WPA records, 1/11/1938, FDR Library, NARA ID 48728414.

[varsoviana]

Yay, librarians!

[ari-kanon]

[talonabraxas]

Bulgarian, The keeper of the herd. by Evo Danchev

[varsoviana]

Let the wild rumpus begin!

[jareckiworld]

Shinya Tamai — Good Night   (mineral pigment on japanese paper, 2017)

[varsoviana]

I think a rabbit in the moon is infinitely more interesting & appropriate than a man in the moon. I didn't know about the moon rabbit until I was in my 20s, investigating Japanese designs for some quilt pillows I was making. I gave my mother the moon rabbit.

[varsoviana]

Laredo porch tiles #4 (?) - these lovely tiles are on my front porch. I found out these are called "pasta tiles" (but I think that is more of a colloquial name?). They are still made somewhere in southern Mexico - need to double-check but I think in the Yucatan (maybe Merida?). Nice background for Dewey Cat Chop.

[varsoviana]

Update on some of our cats. The little kitten my spouse found is now a big cat; her rear leg that was not working is mostly stiff, but it doesn't seem to hold her back. Buster is now a "tri-pawed" cat. Cancer on his R rear leg returned so we amputated. He's also doing fine. The new guy is Dewey Cat Chop - not really all that new as I think he's been in our house about 3 years. He'd been the library cat living on the back patio outside the library employees . He has a bad habit of biting for attention (it's lessened a lot since he's been with us); folks didn't like getting their ankles attacked. After maybe 6 months or so, I could tell he needed to be moved. No one wanted him & I seemed to be the person he'd most taken to. So I brought him home. Dewey's domain is the back porch & bathroom. However, he comes in when it's chilly (cold!) outside; hangs out on the bed & gets grumpy if we move too much. Growls & then leaves to head back outside. Ah, ... cats.

[annemarieeyeretzian]

Women’s History Month: Women in Art History

Remedios Varo, Spanish-Mexican Surrealist painter (1908-1953)

[varsoviana]

The art & life of #Remedios Varo fascinate me. Harmony is one of my favorite works of Varo (touches my musicologist persona). And i love her depictions of cats! My favorite: #El Paraiso de los Gatos.

#women surrealist painters

[archaeologicalnews]

Metal detectorist finds medieval gold brooch with supernatural inscriptions

A metal detectorist has discovered a medieval gold brooch with a series of Latin and Hebrew inscriptions. The artifact, found in Wiltshire in the U.K., may have mixed religion and magic in an attempt to give its user protection against illness or supernatural events.

The Latin inscriptions translate to “Hail Mary full of grace the lord/ is with thee/ blessed art thou amongst women/ and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Amen.” The Hebrew initials for “AGLA” are also inscribed on the brooch and represent Hebrew words that mean “Thou art mighty forever, O Lord.”

The gold brooch dates to sometime between A.D. 1150 and 1400 and may have been used in an attempt to prevent fever, according to a brief report on the brooch published online by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and written by Sophie Hawke, a finds liaison officer for PAS. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

5,000-year-old chalk sculpture discovered in grave of three Neolithic children

Archaeologists in Britain have discovered a 5,000-year-old sculpture, made out of chalk, that has enigmatic motifs engraved on it. The British Museum called it “the most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last 100 years.”

Found near the village of Burton Agnes in East Yorkshire, the stone sculpture was found alongside a chalk ball and bone pin inside the grave of three children. The archaeologists estimated the three children were 3 to 5, 6 to 9, and 10 to 12 years of age when they died. The two youngest children were found “facing towards each other and possibly holding hands,” said Mark Allen, the director of Allen Archaeology, the cultural resources management company that excavated the site. The eldest child was between and had their arms around the two youngest “as if protecting them,” Allen said in an email. The chalk sculpture was found above the head of the eldest child. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Rare Pictish symbol stone found near potential site of famous battle

Archaeologists have uncovered a Pictish symbol stone close to the location of one of the most significant carved stone monuments ever uncovered in Scotland.

The team from the University of Aberdeen hit upon the 1.7 meter-long stone in a farmer’s field while conducting geophysical surveys to try and build a greater understanding of the important Pictish landscape of Aberlemno, near Forfar.

Aberlemno is already well known for its Pictish heritage thanks to its collection of unique Pictish standing stones the most famous of which is a cross-slab thought to depict scenes from a battle of vital importance to the creation of what would become Scotland—the Battle of Nechtansmere. Read more.

[archaeologicalnews]

Shackleton's lost Endurance ship discovered beneath Antarctic sea

The wreck of the steam-yacht Endurance, which famously sank in 1915 during an Antarctic expedition by the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, has been rediscovered by searchers using autonomous underwater vehicles.

The shipwreck was found at a depth of 9,869 feet (3,008 meters) beneath West Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, according to the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust (FMHT), which sponsored the search.

That’s only about 4 nautical miles (7 km) south of the location fixed by the ship’s captain, Frank Worsley, who used a sextant to record the position of its sinking after several months of the ship being surrounded and eventually crushed by ice. Read more.

[varsoviana]

Nothing short of amazing!

[archaeologicalnews]

Ancient handprints on cave walls in Spain found to include children's hands

A trio of researchers from Universidad de Cantabria and the University of Cambridge has found evidence suggesting that up to a quarter of all ancient handprints found on cave walls in Spain were made using children’s hands. In their paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Verónica Fernández-Navarro, Edgard Camarós and Diego Garate describe their study of ancient hand prints found in five Spanish caves and what they believe their findings suggest about ancient hand prints on cave walls in general.

Over the past several decades, hand prints on cave walls have come to represent ancient cave art as much as drawings of animals. Scientists studying the handprints have generally agreed that they, along with the animal drawings, were all likely done by males in a given group. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence suggesting that up to a quarter of all cave hand prints were made using children’s hands. Read more.