AS TIME PROGRESSES. . .

. . .this seems to happen more often than I care to admit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The REMEMBER SONG by Tom Rush

 

SOMETHING TO HOLD ONTO

For what it is worth, a couple of good follow up articles to the Intelligent Women blog.  Guess it might also prove men have more sense than we are given credit for. 

SKINNY MODELS ARE A 'TURN OFF' IN ADVERTISING CLAIM SCIENTISTS

It has been a golden rule of advertising from its inception - thin models sell more products to women. The only trouble is, it is not true, claims new research.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent; The Telegraph UK online

Researchers have found that skinny models are actually a turn off to consumers in TV commercials and other advertising.

They found that images of super-thin models carry no edge in encouraging young women to buy and for the majority of adult women ads showing skinny girls actually discouraged sales.

So-called plus-size models, on the other hand, actually encouraged them to

buy.

In the study psychologist Phillippa Diedrichs, of the University of Queensland, Australia, created a series of ads for underwear, shampoo and a party dress.

Each ad was made twice, once using a skinny size eight model and another featuring a size 12 woman.

When the ads were shown to 400 young women, they produced no difference in the likelihood for them to buy.

However, when women aged between 18 and 25 saw the adverts they felt better - and more likely to buy - after viewing the images of the larger models.

Miss Diedrichs said: "For anything to change, research has to be convincing, not just to government and health researchers, but also to people in advertising who actually make the decisions.

 

"Often people make the argument that thinness sells, and that's why they use slim models.

"But we can change the images we see and still sell products but also make people feel better about themselves."

The Unilever soap brand Dove has based its image on a campaign using "real women" and highlighting how much imagery in advertising is manipulated.

But critics point out that the same firm uses more traditional imagery to promote other brands, such as Lynx deodorant, which features skinny models.

There have been concerted campaigns against the ultra-thin "size zero" with fashion weeks in Madrid and Milan banning models from the catwalk who were of a weight deemed unhealthy by the Body Mass Index measure.

And another story from Australia:

WHAT MEN WANT: THIN'S NOT IN

by Caroline Marcus, Brisbane Times online

 

More Australian men will choose size 14 over size eight when it comes to the body shape of their ideal woman, igniting debate on what it means to be thin.

Men's magazine FHM conducted an online survey asking whether its readers found a size eight, size 12 or size 14 model most attractive.

The survey drew 60,000 responses. Four-fifths said they were more attracted to the size 12 and 14 models than the size eight model pictured.

Most votes went to the size 12 woman, with 41 per cent of respondents saying she had the body shape of their "ideal girlfriend".

The size 14 body was preferred by 39 per cent, while the size eight came a distant third with 20 per cent.

FHM editor Ben Smithurst said the findings were good news for women.

"A piddling 20 per cent of readers selected our size eight model pictured as their ideal girl physique, while the size 12 and 14 models easily outscored their skinnier rival," he said.

IN PRAISE OF INTELLIGENT WOMEN

Through out most of history, and prehistory,  large women were praised, even worshipped. Only in recent times, for the most part, have skinny women been deemed "the look".  So much so, so much society pressure, that binging and purging are far too common for our young women, along with sickness and depression. I once read the look is nicknamed "The Heroin Look".  Recent research shows that our ancestors were the ones with the real knowledge about body shape. In many ways they were smarter than we are.  One of the more interesting articles I have read in a while, I hope there is a follow up with more information.   

 

Dated to 25,000 B.C., The Mother Goddess

 

Seated Goddess

7000 - 6500 - BC - (Pre-Hittite)

Venus with Cupid and a dolphin,

 Roman classical sculpture

BIG BUTTS = BIG BRAINS

by Mark Putnam, L7 World

So says new research out of the Universities of California & Pittsburgh. The researchers theorize the increased brain power is a result of the Omega-3 fatty acids stored in the hips and thighs.

But don’t start gargling the Ben & Jerry’s yet ladies. While added weight in the hips raises intelligence, belly fat which contains Omega-6 fatty acids lowers it. It’s all about hip-to-waist ratio. The lower it is the smarter you and your children will be. You might say, this badonkadonk effect is in your genes.

(badonkadonk

:

An ‘ebonic’ expression for an extremely curvaceous female behind. Women who possess this feature usually have a small waist that violently explodes into a round and juicy posterior (e.g., 34c, 24, 38). Other characteristics would be moderately wide hips and a large amount of booty cleavage (i.e, depth of butt-crack). From the Urban Dictionary--JohnOh  Yes I would have used this word as a PPF theme!! You betcha!!!

 

Roman, A.D. 40–60
Marble (from Pompei)

Speaking of genes, the next time your girl asks you, ‘do these jeans make my butt look big,’ you can tell her ‘no baby, they make you look smart’ (like Einstein smart).

Venus and Cupid

circa 1625-30, Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593-1652)

Very interesting post along the same lines at Bill's page.  http://danceinsilence.multiply.com/tag/big%20butts   An informative news video reporting on the changing perception of body shapes and sizes.  Well worth watching.

 

SLOW DANCE

When I first came across this poem, it was attributed to a "terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital".   Certainly caught the eye and when reading it made you go Ahhhhhh.  Since then I have found the author to be a child pyschologist by the name of David Weatherford.  The poem is non the less powerful and a needed reminder to "take time to smell the roses" in this fast paced world.

 

 

 

Slow Dance

by David L. Weatherford

    Have you ever watched kids
    On a merry-go-round?
    Or listened to the rain
    Slapping on the ground?
    Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
    Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
    You better slow down.
    Don't dance so fast.
    Time is short.
    The music won't last.

    Do you run through each day
    On the fly?
    When you ask How are you?
    Do you hear the reply?
    When the day is done
    Do you lie in your bed
    With the next hundred chores
    Running through your head?
    You'd better slow down
    Don't dance so fast.
    Time is short.
    The music won't last.

    Ever told your child,
    We'll do it tomorrow?
    And in your haste,
    Not see his sorrow?
    Ever lost touch,
    Let a good friendship die
    Cause you never had time
    To call and say,"Hi"
    You'd better slow down.
    Don't dance so fast.
    Time is short.
    The music won't last.

    When you run so fast to get somewhere
    You miss half the fun of getting there.
    When you worry and hurry through your day,
    It is like an unopened gift....
    Thrown away.
    Life is not a race.
    Do take it slower
    Hear the music
    Before the song is over.

 

THANKS TO ALL THE VETS WHO SERVED AND ARE SERVING

We owe you, who were so young, so much, to your brothers in arms who will forever remain  young in your memories and to your families.  Thank you, in so many languages, and over so many years and conflicts, thank you to those who served and are serving.

 

CARENTAN OH CARENTAN    

Trees in the old days used to stand 

And shape a shady lane

Where lovers wandered hand in hand

Who came from Carentan

this was the shining green canal

where we came two by two

walking at combat-interval

Such trees we never knew.

The day way early June, the ground

was soft and bright with dew.

Far away the guns did sound,

But here the sky was blue.

The Sky was blue, but there was smoke

Hung still above the sea

Where ships together spoke 

                                 to towns that we could not see.

Could you have seen us through a glass

You would have said a walk

of farmers out to turn the grass.

Each with his own hay-fork.

The watchers in their leopard suits

waited till it was time,

And amined between the belt and boot

And let the barrel climb.

 

I must lie down at once, there is

A hammer at my knee.

And callit death or cowardice,

Don't count again on me.

Everything's all right, Mother,
Everyone gets the same
At one time or another.
It's all in the game  

I never strolled, nor ever shall,

Down such a leay lane.

I never drank in a canal, 

nor ever shall again.

There is a whistling in the leaves
And it is not the wind,
The twigs are falling from the knives
That cut men to the ground.

Tell me, Master-Sergeant,
The way to turn and shoot.
But the Sergeant's silent
That taught me how to do it.

O Captain, show us quickly
Our place upon the map.
But the Captain's sickly
And taking a long nap.

Lieutenant, what's my duty,
My place in the platoon?
He too's a sleeping beauty,
Charmed by that strange tune.

Carentan O Carentan
Before we met with you
We never yet had lost a man
Or known what death could do.

--Louis Simpson--

Served with the 101st Airborne Division, WWII

PICTURE PERFECT HANDMADE

The only piece of furniture I have left that I made was too hard to get too, it was just a small shelf stool/table. So I dug out an old photo album and will share this one with you. 

1979,  Arcata, Humboldt County California, one of the most beautiful places in California. I produced the custom  furniture orders in a Redwood Burl factory.  What was nice about this is we used already cut down and rejected wood, some has been laying in the forest or washed up on the beaches for years and years. Ten and Twelve inch skill saws, routers, 7" disc sander, 4" belt sander,  and a huge old bandsaw that I secretly called the Emasculator.  It had a very nasty habit of throwing blades. Most of the shaping on the large redwood slabs was done with a chain saw..  

The only nails and screws used were in the drawer unit. Also used a smaller  sander both disc and finish,  and hand rasps to shape the front pieces of that. Everything else sat in mortises and then bolted together with angle plates.  Most of these went overseas, so they were designed to break down into individual pieces for packing in sea-land containers.

I called these, The Flintstone Line, but not in front of customers. . .

That is yours truly in a younger day, where I still had the ability to grow hair.

 

Monty Python are still funny after all these years, added the video. . .

 

IT IS TIME -- SAILING AWAY

I am choosing to sail away, just because I can, and because I can, I will.  It has been nice, in fact I would say it has been wonderful, but sometimes. . .sometimes it is just good to relax, close the eyes, and let your imagination loose!!!  WHAT!!??  Did you think I was leaving just because of some election!!??   I have been wanting to put these two together for a while, because I love the painting, and I love the music, and they do seem to blend in with one another. . .perhaps, just perhaps I might meet some of you, as imaginations cross, minds meet, and  paths join. . .