Don't Just Sit There, Cast a Vote

 In Life's Large Scheme, this doesn't matter much, but during Quarantine Time, you take pleasures as you can.  That said, finding the photos for Dr. Fauci vs. "Dr. House" yesterday nade me silly happy.  The winner there and elsewhere:

Dolly Parton

Jeff Bridges 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dan Rather 

Olivia Colman

Alan Alda 

Michelle Obama

Anthony Fauci 

Happy Sunday, Sweet Sixteen

 Two take-offs (takes-off?) on songs in a row.  No symbolism, just what's happened.

You'll notice changes in the pairings today.  The background color is new, as is how you will see the votes in real time.  I block voting results completely in the semis and the finals;  thought I'd work to that with a small step.

Saturday at the Polls

(Not the Fourth of July, by the way.)

 Heading into the weekend, we're juuuust about to have narrowed both fields down to 16.  This is all flying by pretty quickly, huh? 

The latest winners are:

Dan Rather

Olivia Colman

Jeff Bridges

Jason Reynolds

Dolly Parton

Yo-Yo Ma

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson are still tied, so I'm pitting them both against the person who was waiting for them.  Keep scrolling and you'll find out who it is.

On the latest menu:

 

Another Day at the Polls

 Once again, I'm having to turn in before polls closed. so won't be posting winners.  All you have to do, though, is scroll down to the previous post and see who's moved into the Round of 16.  It's your right and responsibility to choose others to join them there.

GO!

 When we're finished with a few days more of voting, we'll be moving right to the Round of 16.  There were fewer nominations this year.  Still, I hope you're enjoying yourself.

The first folks into the Round of 16 are

Allison Janney

Oscar Isaac

Rashida Jones

David Strathairn

Seychelle Gabriel

Leslie Odom, Jr.

And another tie: Fiona Hill vs. Jane Pauley

Next?

No Rest for the Voters

The latest winners:

Alan Alda

Rachel McAdams

Yo-Yo Ma

Tracy Ullman

Chris Hemsworth

Anderson Cooper

Keira Knightley

Jason Bateman

The first tie:

Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson (We'll revisit them later.)

 Feeling good, feeling strong?  Here you go:

Let's Keep Going

 It's been a bit of a day.  I'm going to bed before the first day's results are in.  Here's your second day of pairs.  (And, sorry about Stephen Colbert vs, Daniel Craig.  I just write down the names as they come out of the hat.)

ETA First-day Winners:

Dan Rather

Audra McDonald

Stephen Colbert

Maya Wiley

Ibram X. Kendi

Alicia Keys

Tom Holland

Let's Get Going

 Deep breath, center yourself, and off you go.

I Present Your Seeds

I just finished filling out the draws.  Before I start The Picture Hunt, I thought I'd let you know who the seeds were.

1.  Helen Mirren

2.  Olivia Colman

3.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

4.  Michelle Obama

5.  Drew Barrymore

6.  Catherine O'Hara

7.  Dolly Parton

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1.  Henrik Lundqvist

2.  Lin-Manuel Miranda

3.  Harry, Duke of Sussex

4.  Jeff Bridges

5.  Chris Evans

6.  Anthony Fauci

7.  Bill Nighy

Get a good njight's sleep, hydrate, take your vitamins, and be ready to start voting late tonight!

Sometimes I Cook. Really.

 I bought myself a little air fryer a while back.  It goes with my little crockpot and teeny waffle iron.  So far, my favorite thing to cook in it is onions.  Just sliced onions pushed apart into rings, and air-fried.  They're crunchy, delicious, and crazy easy.

There's not much knitting going on here of late.  I'm reading two really good books (one a novel the other a dense biography of Montgomery Clift), so a lot of my time has been devoted to them.  Plus, the knitting fire just isn't there right now.

The knitting contests, though, are on the horizon.  A few nominations are already in.  Have you sent yours in yet?

So. . . Eve

Do you have your nominations ready?  You can start sending them to me tomorrow, you know.  You'll be able to submit names from 12:01 AM tomorrow until Sunday at noon ET.  My plan is to fill out the brackets Sunday afternoon and night so that voting can begin Monday.

I've had my KH three set for quite a while, but I'm really waffling on the third KC.  It may honestly come down to a coin flip.

Gray day here today, perfect for reading and writing letters and working jigsaw puzzles, so that's what I did.

So. . . Stuff

 I ordered a small teapot and it is even cuter than in its photos:

I'm unsure why I'm so enamored of clear glass cups and pots, but I truly am.

Also cute, from Facebook:

And one of dear, departed Klunk which I came across today: 

So. . . The Contests

As you spend this week narrowing down your Knitters' Companion nominees to three males and three females, let me tell you who you do not have to nominate.  All of these people earned immediate entry into the contests by winning or being the runners-up in the last couple of contests.  Again, don't nominate

Henrik Lundqvist 

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Prince Harry

Jeff Bridges

Helen Mirren

Olivia Colman

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Michelle Obama

Nominations open Friday and go through mid-day Sunday.  Ideally, and depending on how many names there are to fit into the draws, voting will start one week from today.

So. . . The South

I  was bred in, born in, and have lived all my life in the South.  I am generally proud to be a Southerner, though there certainly have been (and still are) occasions when the behaviors and definitions here are deeply embarrassing

There are Southerners who are crass, loud, unwilling to move off their opinions and experiences.  There are Southerners who are kind, friendly, truly willing to learn and change if they should.  There are Southerners consumed by the gentility of their forebears, and with letting everyone else know that.

There are Southerners who are moneyed.  Some of that money is old, some of it recent.  There are people who say, and honestly mean, "Bless your heart."  There is snobbery and people who say, "Bless your heart" with a force and a tone that comes from way-too-far-on-high.  

There are Southerners who are educated, and let you know that.  There are Southerners who are educated and never bring it up.  There are Southerners who are not educated and cover the ignorance with bravado and bluster and the belief that louder is stronger.

And yes, I know that every region of the country has people with these characteristics.  My life, though, hasn't taken me out of the South all that often, and never anywhere long enough that my South-ness faded.  Maybe most of what separates us from everyone else is the sweet tea and The Accent.  And religion.  Don't even get me started on Bible-thumping and insincerity and hypocrisy and sarcasm that come off tongues in torrents.  

It's the insincerity that is criminal to me.  The words that seem barely capable of staying in a mouth until the back is turned.  The giving in to the pressure to present well.  The weight of ridiculous expectations to appear better than you are, becuase the importance of status in the South cannot be overstated.  Nor can the prevalence of disdain and entitlement among too many here.

And, by the way, I personally consider this:

"Western," not "Southern."

And SO flippin' cute.

A Day the Day After

I spent yesterday in Atlanta with Hannah.  She had several errands that needed taking care of, so we hit the Atlanta roads.  Those roads are, have you not heard, many, confusing, extremely crowded and unendingly under construction.

We drove by a mall that had a full parking lot.  "Full" as in Black Friday full.  UNBELIEVABLE.  What is it that people don't get with a flippin' pandemic?  And Georgia's case are growing as fast, if not faster, than lots of other states.  

She wanted to go to a CBD store (apparently, CBD bath bombs are divine), and sort of chose one at random based on driving time and distance.  It wound up being in a pretty nice shopping center, and neither of us could keep a straight face when we saw the store's neighbor:

It's what looked like a gift/Hallmark-type store, and she and I have seldom been happier to be wearing masks.  Our comments and giggles were concealed.  How much more Southern could you get?

More on the South next time.

Hope You Don't Mind Raw Dough

 My third stop of this morning (first, taking Tap out, second, ablutions):

But I went ahead and mixed up some dough for dumplings:

I also made an applesauce cobbler:

Then time for polishing nails and doing crosswords:

But nothing brought the joy of this video.  It's so good to know your gift is being put to good use.

Going On

There is precisely one repeat of the pattern on that cable.  I cast on for a shawl, did that first pass through the instructions, then put it here on the coffee table.

I've got a kitchen towel and an on-the-bias scarf going on, too.  I don't have to pay close attention to either of those, so they're getting more of my time than this.

Placed a pick-up order at Kroger the other day, and decided to break out my Rangers mask, despite them having been quickly dispatched from the Stanley Cup playoffs earlier in the week.

At said Kroger, I was met with this sight:

Seriously?  In August?

Just Stuff

I can't crochet anything but a chain, but seeing things like this make me wish I could.

This is from Willow Yarns --- I got the catalog today.  Very bulky yarn, made with a size 19 crochet hook.  Knowing what a 19 knitting needle looks like, I can only imagine a hook.

I'm still plugging away on books, and on my second or third pass on my jigsaw puzzles.  Watching movies, too.  Old, old, old Boris Karloff ("The Dark Old House"), black and white Frank Sinatra ("Suddenly"), vintage Gregory Peck ("Mirage"), a re-watch I'd been planning to get to ("Fitzcarraldo").  

Covid cases in Athens have tripled in the last three weeks.  School is starting tomorrow in a county right next door (as in less than a mile away from this house.)  It's been forever since I've left the house, so I don't know what things are like "out there."  School here has been delayed until after Labor Day, and UGA is scheduled to get back into session on August 20th, though lots and lots of faculty and staff are not happy with the "plan" UGA has in place.  It's a mess all around.

Are You Ready?

In three weeks, I'll start accepting nominations for Knitters' Hunk and Knitters' Chick!  That's right --- get your nominations ready.  I think my own KH nominees are pretty set, but I'm uncertain about KC.  

So, as you choose knitting projects for the next little while, imagine who you would like to be room with you as you work.  It's that simple.