The Tree Surgeon and the Fallen Limb

What? A limb is hanging loose from our 60 year old Norwegian Maple Tree?  A loose limb hanging over our neighbor's yard?  Yikes.

Get rid of it!

She complained.

We obeyed.

But a week later, another huge limb fell into our neighbor's yard from that very same tree.  (Luckily, at the time, no one was standing under the tree for its protective shade or gazing up into its leafy boughs!) What the heck?  The expert tree folks had just checked the tree!

Calling the tree surgeon that next week (the week after he had checked the tree), he explained that he had realized that the limb was on the edge, but that he hadn't wanted to remove that second limb because it "protected" us from the neighbors having full view of our back yard activities. In what activities did the tree surgeon think that we engaged?

More fabric softener, fewer soap suds . . . Really?

So you're at the laundromat and, if you're like Marash Girl, you fail to measure out the liquid soap and pour far more enthusiastically than you realize . . .  the soap suds soon cover the glass window of the front loading washing machine . . . and your wash will have to be run through again for another full cycle of rinsing . . .  unless, of course, you know this trick that Marash Girl recently learned.  Add more fabric softener and the soap suds will magically diminish . . . and you will be saved paying (with time and your last quarters) for another cycle of the same load of wash.  

Can a chemist out there in cyberspace explain why this trick works?

"Miracle on Worthington Street": Gas Explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts

Friday, November 23, 2012, 5:30 PM.  Our telephones started ringing. . . There had been a gas explosion on Worthington Street in Springfield,  Massachusetts, and several blocks away, all of the windows had been blown out at the Birney Building (on Apremont Triangle), the building that the City Church called home, and the building that houses the studio of Karoun Yoga. Miraculously, no one had been hurt.

At the time of the explosion, the Mayor of Springfield was at the Springfield Museum Quadrangle lighting the Christmas tree -- the folks attending the ceremonial lighting there thinking that the explosion was all part of the show, the Mayor and the Lieutenant Governor knowing differently, heading at a run down Edwards Street, down Chestnut Street, past the just blown out windows of the Birney Building on Apremont Triangle, towards 453 Worthington Street where they could already see a huge black mushroom shaped cloud looming upward, and acrid smoke filling the air.  It was 5:25 PM.

The Scores Strip Club (euphemistically known as a "gentleman's club", though what gentleman would be seen there, Marash Girl has yet to figure out) had reported smelling natural gas at 4:25 PM.  The gas company and fire department had arrived at the scene and turned off the gas, to no avail.  Very soon after, the building at 453 Worthington Street and its neighbor were no longer, the explosion heard and felt for miles around, blowing out windows and causing structural damage to buildings for blocks around, the air filled with acrid smoke.  (If you have questions on whether or not your building is habitable, call 413-787-6031 or 413-787-6032.)

Oh, and the miracle? 2 buildings were completely destroyed, 12 buildings were significantly damaged, 12 buildings suffered moderate damage, (48 DAMAGED BUILDINGS AS OF NOVEMBER 26!) windows for blocks around were blown out, 18 people were injured, (9 firemen, 4 gas company employees, 2 police officers, 2 civilians, and a water & sewer worker) . . . but not one life was lost.

Karoun's condo, 3rd floor corner apartment, Chestnut & Worthington Streets

A Phalanx of Flies

The hero of this tale: "10 with one blow!"

Expecting a first time meeting with a cousin that she had never met, Marash Girl went about straightening and dusting and setting a table with iced tea and cake.  All was in order, and the hour her cousin was to arrive was at hand.  On a last check, Marash Girl looked up at the kitchen windows, and to her horror there along the top edge of the window was a phalanx of flies -- literally hundreds of flies lined up all in a row.  Not one was flying about.  They were all just sitting there.  Horrified, Marash Girl reached for the fly swatter, something she never would have had were it not for her sister who had hand carried a hand-tooled wooden handled leather fly swatter all the way back from Helsinki, Finland, as a memento to be cherished (although Marash Girl noticed yesterday that  'Made in China' was clearly marked at the base of the handle)!  Luckily Marash Girl had cherished it and placed it in her kitchen next to the very window that was the home of hundreds of newly born flies.  Out came the fly swatter, and the massacre of the flies began.  At least a hundred were massacred on that day.  Flies began zooming around the kitchen, dining room and living room for the next three days, interrupting conversations, interrupting meals, interrupting writing!  Finally, today, after three days, Marash Girl seems to have conquered the invasion of the flies. . . time will tell.   But whether or not her cousin will ever return is yet to be seen.

Tasha Tudor and the Microwave

Tasha Tudor, long loved illustrator of children's books, has been a favorite of children and their parents for many a decade.  Even so for Marash Girl.  And so, many years ago, when Marash Girl found a signed copy of Tasha Tudor's FIRST GRACES (published in 1955), she was more than delighted.  But the book had suffered some adversity over the years, and when removed from the shelf this last week, was a bit musty.  Not to worry.  Marash Girl knew the microwave would freshen the book up!  But this was a tiny book, no more than 4.5x3x.25 inches.  So to be careful was of the essence.  (Yes, reader, did you know that the microwave kills must and mildew, but the process must be done with much care.)  And even though Marash Girl understood how careful she must be, after she put the book through the microwave for the first 30 seconds, the vaguest whiff of must was still present.  She knew not to put such a tiny book on for more than 30 seconds at a time, she knew, but she went in the face of her knowledge and hit the 1 minute button on the microwave!  And guess what happened . . . what happens whenever we don't pay attention to what we know to be right! 

OCTOBER 22, 2011: EARTHQUAKE IN VAN, EASTERN TURKEY, KILLS HUNDREDS

Yesterday's internet news reported that "Sunday's earthquake and its aftershocks affected much of eastern Turkey, demolishing hundreds of buildings and burying numerous victims under the rubble. Erciş, (a town near Van) was hardest hit by the violent shaking; at least 55 destroyed buildings, 45 fatalities, and 156 injuries occurred in the town alone. . . The death toll stood at 264 people twenty-two hours after the main shock but as many as a thousand are feared dead. Multiple news reports suggest that up to 1300 are injured as a result of the earthquake with many still stuck under rubble."  Hundreds more fatalities have been reported since this report.

["The 1941 Van-Erciş earthquake occurred at 23:53 local time on 10 September. It had an estimated magnitude of 5.9 and a maximum intensity of VIII (Destructive) on the Mercalli intensity scale, causing 192 casualties.  . . . "Wikipedia]

Marash Girl cried when she heard the news of the lost lives and destruction that occurred on Sunday because of the earthquake in the  city of Van, once the center of a large flourishing Armenian community.

Marash Girl fears the fickleness of natural disasters -- how an earthquake or a tornado can take one building and leave the next intact, can kill one person, and leave the next. . .

But her greater fear is the fear of those disasters caused by mankind, disasters that take the lives of hundreds of thousands, of millions, disasters such as that which occurred in Van and Eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923.