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March 2023 Prompts - Part 1
Apr. 11th, 2023 03:13 pmMy attention span is still disrupted for various reasons, so have some prompt answers from last month.
1 – World Compliment day: Do you think there is still a place in the modern world for unsolicited compliments? Of course there is, though one has to think about the context. I am perfectly happy when a stranger compliments me on something I am wearing, for example. But it can be creepy if they compliment me on some trait that is not within my control. I’ve had some very weird encounters with people who have what I can only assume is a fetish about curly hair.
2 – World Book Day: What are you reading at the moment or what have you just finished reading? I just finished The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I will read The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro soon, but I was in the mood for some trashy chick lit first.
3 – What if cats and dogs had opposable thumbs day? This is a fun one, what do you think our furry companions would be doing if they could open the cans themselves? I know pretty much nothing about dogs. The notion of cats with opposable thumbs is frightening. If they didn’t need us to open cat food cans for them, they wouldn’t bother to keep us around, would they?
4 – International scrapbook industry day: Have you ever made a scrapbook? If you were to start a scrapbook today what would you put in it? I think I may have kept a scrapbook of sorts as a child, but I don’t really remember. I had thought of making some scrapbook pages combining pictures and some sort of other ephemera, but that would take up too much room.
5 – Fun facts about Names Day: Does your name have a meaning? Were you named after somebody? How old do you think your name is? This could be your first name or surname. This is a complicated subject. My Hebrew name is Malkah Chaya, after two of my great-grandmothers - my mother’s maternal grandmother Malkah Makower Schwartzbard and my father’s maternal grandmother Chaya Khonkel Feinstain. I’m of the generation in which people often gave secular names that were created using the first letter of one’s Hebrew name, hence being named Miriam. (I don’t voluntarily tell people my middle name, because I detest it.) Malkah means “queen” and Chaya is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for life. My surname, Nadel, means “needle,” and is appropriate for a long line of tailors. But bear in mind that Jews in Lithuania didn’t, in general, take surnames until the 1800’s, so it isn’t very old.
6 – Start of the British Pie Week! What is your favourite savoury pie? How about your favourite sweet pie? Is a pasty lid on top of a casserole really a pie? I think the only savory pie I ever eat is something like chicken pot pie once in a while, unless you count quiche, which I used to eat back in the 1980’s when it was in fashion. I suppose a pastry lid on top of a casserole would count, but I don’t think that’s something I would ever make. As for sweet pies, there’s a pie bakery near me that makes a wonderful raspberry peach pie. I also like some cream pies, like lemon meringue or coconut custard or chocolate cream. I have fond memories of nesselrode pie, but that is pretty much extinct nowadays.
7 – Cereal Day: What cereals do you like? If you had cereal for breakfast this morning what was it? What was your favourite as a child? I often eat cereal for breakfast and I favor reasonably healthy sorts nowadays, like puffed Kashi or Crispix or Total. As a child, I ate horrible stuff like Cocoa Krispies. I also remember liking Quisp for the space alien theme.
8 – International Women’s Day (March is also Women’s History Month): This was first celebrated in 1909, have you ever celebrated it? How do you think women should be honoured on this day? I’ve done lots of storytelling events for Women’s History Month if that counts. I like telling stories about women in technical fields. I’ve been vaguely working on developing a fringe show about “Calculating Women.”
9 – Professional Pet Sitters Week: Have you ever engaged the services of a professional pet sitter, or do you usually rely on family or friends to take care of your pets when you're away? Have you ever done any pet sitting for anyone? Would pet sit for any type of pet, or would you limit your services to one specific type of animal (e.g. only cats, or only dogs, etc.)? I travel too much to have pets. I suppose I’d be willing to help out with someone’s cat if I were available, but, again, I am gone too much.
10 – Middle Name Pride Day: not everyone has one, do you? Is there a story behind your middle name or why you don’t have one? As I mentioned above, my middle name comes from my father’s maternal grandmother. I despise my secular middle name and use only my middle initial, other than on official documents.
11 – World Plumbing Day: We take indoor plumbing for granted – until there's a problem with it. Have you ever suffered a major plumbing emergency? Have you ever tried to fix a plumbing issue on your own? Did you succeed? I remember some major faucet eruption in an apartment I lived in back in the early 1980’s. We figured out how to turn off the water and called the landlord. About the only stuff I fix myself are minor clogs. I have a plastic tool with hooks for pulling gunk out of drains, which works well.
12 – Craft Month: Do you enjoy being creative? What crafts do you participate in? What crafts would you like to try out? I do a lot of crafts, generally involving fiber and/or paper. I knit, crochet, make lace, do embroidery, and do bookbinding, among other things. I’ve only done a very little bit of temari and would like to learn more about it.
13 – Good Samaritan Day: Have you ever been a good Samaritan for a stranger? Has anyone ever been one for you? Do you think people are less likely to help out these days than in the past? I’ve probably done something minor like helping someone pick up something they’ve dropped. And I often help tourists find their way somewhere. People have done similar things for me. I don’t think this has changed over the years, except that more people live in big cities where people are less likely to be helpful.
14 – Crowdfunding Day: Did you know it dates back to the 19th century although the modern resurgence dates from the mid 1990s? Have you ever donated to a crowdfund? Have you ever asked people to donate to you? I’ve donated to a few crowdfunded projects, generally to help specific people I have some sort of connection to (either directly or as a friend of a friend). I’ve never asked people to donate to me.
15 – Brutus Day: Et tu, Brutus? Have you ever (figuratively) stabbed someone in the back? Has someone stabbed you in the back (also figuratively, unless someone actually stabbed you in the back)? I don’t think anyone has ever stabbed me in the back, nor have I stabbed someone in the back.
16 – Sleep Awareness Week: Poor sleep is heavily linked to weight gain, decrease concentration and productivity, increase the risks of heart diseases and strokes, is connected to depression, and can affect emotional and social interactions. Do you get enough sleep most nights? Do you suffer from any sleep-related problems, e.g. insomnia, sleep apnea, etc.? Do you try to stick to a regular sleep routine (same time to bed and waking up), even on weekends? I have a lot of sleep issues. I find it hard to sleep for more than about four or so hours at a time. I’ll get up for a while and then go back to sleep a few hours later. I think I’d be better off keeping more regular sleep hours, but I never manage to.
17 – Saint Patrick’s Day: is this something you celebrate or is it just another day for you? It’s just another day for me.
18 – Quilting Day: The oldest known quilting dates from 3400 BC! Has anyone ever made you a quilt or have you made your own? Have you ever bought a hand-made quilt? Quilting doesn’t hold much interest for me. I admire some art quilts, but it isn’t a craft that appeals to me as something to do.
19 – International Read To Me Day: created to boost literacy this day isn’t just for children. When was the last time you read out loud to someone? What was it you read? Did someone read aloud to you when you were a child? Some couples read to each other – if you have a significant other, is this something you do? I tell stories, but rarely read out loud other than brief passages or poetry. I do often read a poem or some amusing passage from a book during my weekly crafts group, for example. I don’t have a lot of specific memories of people reading to me as a child, but I am sure they must have. The story I’ve been told was that, when I was very little, my father went to college at night and worked during the day. He knew about the importance of reading to us, but he was really busy. He figured we were too young to understand or care what he was reading, so he read to us from his textbooks! Hence, I got bedtime stories from things like “Introduction to Electronics” and “Principles of Cost Accounting for Engineers.” I also have a vague memory of either my father or my grandfather reading newspapers to us.
20 – International Day of Happiness: this was created by the United Nations to spread the idea that happitalism rather than capitalism should be spread around the world. Is happiness a choice? What makes you happy? What little thing can you do to make someone else happy? Did anything occur this month that made you particularly happy? Happiness is only partly a choice. We are all subject to some events that disrupt our happiness, e.g. illness (for ourselves or someone close to us) or some other sort of crisis. That said, we can choose to do things that make us happy, including spending time with people we like. Some things that make me happy are dancing, reading funny things, walking somewhere pretty (especially near water), and eating something good. In terms of making other people happy, I do send cards and letters to friends sometimes, and I think those are appreciated.
21 – International Fragrance Day: Many public spaces, at least in North America, have scent-free policies in place due to the number of people who are negatively affected by perfumes and other scented products. Are you negatively affected by other people's colognes/body sprays/after-shave, etc.? Do you use scented products yourself? I do have a lot of chemical sensitivity issues and often react to people wearing a lot of certain fragrances. At the same time, I love fragrance. I just try to use it subtly.
22 – World Water Day: 783 million people across the world don’t have access to clean water. What water related activity could you do to celebrate this day? Pledge to conserve water? Go swimming? Donate to a water charity? Mostly I avoid single use water bottles. I suppose the other alternative is drinking rum instead.
23 – Peanut Month: do you like peanuts? Peanut butter? I do like both peanuts and peanut butter, though I don’t eat them often. I most often eat peanut butter as emergency food (i.e. when I really just don’t feel like cooking or shopping) or use it in a pasta sauce.
24 – International Waffle Day: How do you like your waffles? Will you be celebrating today by eating any? I like waffles, typically with maple syrup. I’ve also been known to eat them with sour cream, which is probably weird but tasty.
25 – Good Hair Day: apparently GHD straighteners were invented in Yorkshire in 2001 and the GHD stands for Good Hair Day - who knew? Describe your hair. What was your hair like as a child? When do you think your hair was at its best? My hair is a long-standing subject of stress for me. I have typical Ashkenazi Jewish hair - thick and curly. (There’s a Hebrew slang word “leefah” which doesn’t have any real English translation.) This would be fine except I was a teenager in the 1970’s - the era of long, stick-straight hair. I did get my hair chemically straightened for a while, which is terrible for it. Nowadays, I mostly just clip it back in a pony tail. There was a while in my 20’s when I went to the Vidal Sassoon school and got cheap haircuts (maybe even free) and used a lot of mousse and I think my hair looked great, but it was a lot of work.
26 – Spanish Paella Day: yum or yuck? Isn’t all paella Spanish? I’ve had some very good paella, but there are other things I like more.
27– World Theatre Day: what was the last thing you saw performed in a theatre? I went to the ballet this past Friday. As regular readers know, I am a very frequent theatre goer. I tend to favor musicals, though I do see plays, too.
28 – Salt Awareness Week (UK): The recommended intake for salt is 6g per day, pick a meal today and share how much salt there is in it. Hmm, for lunch just a little while ago I ate a piece of matzoh with cream cheese and a bunch of grapes. The matzoh claims not to have any sodium, but the cream cheese has 110 mg per serving. Grapes have only 2 mg of sodium per cup, so I think I did pretty well. But I’m planning to have borscht for supper tonight and that’s about 800 mg of sodium.
29 – World Piano Day: have you ever taken piano lessons? What is your favourite piece of piano music or song? I took piano lessons from three different teachers. My first teacher, Mr. Manassian, had a big thing about not looking at your hands and would hold a notebook over your hands and slap you with it if you looked at them. He also had a thing for making siblings play duets. Then I spent a couple of months studying with Mr. Mattson at the Oceanside Music School, who taught “popular” music. Except his idea of popular music was from the 1940’s, while I wanted to play, say, The Beatles. At least he didn’t make me play duets with my brother. I quit for a long time, but then, when I was in high school, I went back to taking lessons, this time with my best friend’s cousin, Johanna, who was a music student at Queens College. She gave me a wide range of music to play - including what I considered actual popular music - and I was a lot more motivated and enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, she ran off to Brazil to marry her boyfriend. As for a favorite piece of piano music, I remember liking to play Satie’s “Gymnopiedie #3” and “Valse Lente” by Delibes (from the ballet “Coppelia.”) I would love to be able to play all of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
30 – Virtual Vacation Day: if you could go away right now where would you go? Any baseball stadium I haven’t been to yet. (I have four trips planned over the next three months, for what it’s worth.)
31 – Crayon Day: have you any fond memories of using crayons? What were your favourite colours? I used to trace my cardboard paper dolls onto heavy paper and use crayons to design clothing for them. I think I favored colors like blue-violet and violet-blue and the subtleties of the differences between those. Also, later on (not too many years ago), Crayola made scented crayons with rather subversive smells. I particularly remember brown was “dirt” and black was “leather jacket.”
1 – World Compliment day: Do you think there is still a place in the modern world for unsolicited compliments? Of course there is, though one has to think about the context. I am perfectly happy when a stranger compliments me on something I am wearing, for example. But it can be creepy if they compliment me on some trait that is not within my control. I’ve had some very weird encounters with people who have what I can only assume is a fetish about curly hair.
2 – World Book Day: What are you reading at the moment or what have you just finished reading? I just finished The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I will read The Best Strangers in the World by Ari Shapiro soon, but I was in the mood for some trashy chick lit first.
3 – What if cats and dogs had opposable thumbs day? This is a fun one, what do you think our furry companions would be doing if they could open the cans themselves? I know pretty much nothing about dogs. The notion of cats with opposable thumbs is frightening. If they didn’t need us to open cat food cans for them, they wouldn’t bother to keep us around, would they?
4 – International scrapbook industry day: Have you ever made a scrapbook? If you were to start a scrapbook today what would you put in it? I think I may have kept a scrapbook of sorts as a child, but I don’t really remember. I had thought of making some scrapbook pages combining pictures and some sort of other ephemera, but that would take up too much room.
5 – Fun facts about Names Day: Does your name have a meaning? Were you named after somebody? How old do you think your name is? This could be your first name or surname. This is a complicated subject. My Hebrew name is Malkah Chaya, after two of my great-grandmothers - my mother’s maternal grandmother Malkah Makower Schwartzbard and my father’s maternal grandmother Chaya Khonkel Feinstain. I’m of the generation in which people often gave secular names that were created using the first letter of one’s Hebrew name, hence being named Miriam. (I don’t voluntarily tell people my middle name, because I detest it.) Malkah means “queen” and Chaya is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for life. My surname, Nadel, means “needle,” and is appropriate for a long line of tailors. But bear in mind that Jews in Lithuania didn’t, in general, take surnames until the 1800’s, so it isn’t very old.
6 – Start of the British Pie Week! What is your favourite savoury pie? How about your favourite sweet pie? Is a pasty lid on top of a casserole really a pie? I think the only savory pie I ever eat is something like chicken pot pie once in a while, unless you count quiche, which I used to eat back in the 1980’s when it was in fashion. I suppose a pastry lid on top of a casserole would count, but I don’t think that’s something I would ever make. As for sweet pies, there’s a pie bakery near me that makes a wonderful raspberry peach pie. I also like some cream pies, like lemon meringue or coconut custard or chocolate cream. I have fond memories of nesselrode pie, but that is pretty much extinct nowadays.
7 – Cereal Day: What cereals do you like? If you had cereal for breakfast this morning what was it? What was your favourite as a child? I often eat cereal for breakfast and I favor reasonably healthy sorts nowadays, like puffed Kashi or Crispix or Total. As a child, I ate horrible stuff like Cocoa Krispies. I also remember liking Quisp for the space alien theme.
8 – International Women’s Day (March is also Women’s History Month): This was first celebrated in 1909, have you ever celebrated it? How do you think women should be honoured on this day? I’ve done lots of storytelling events for Women’s History Month if that counts. I like telling stories about women in technical fields. I’ve been vaguely working on developing a fringe show about “Calculating Women.”
9 – Professional Pet Sitters Week: Have you ever engaged the services of a professional pet sitter, or do you usually rely on family or friends to take care of your pets when you're away? Have you ever done any pet sitting for anyone? Would pet sit for any type of pet, or would you limit your services to one specific type of animal (e.g. only cats, or only dogs, etc.)? I travel too much to have pets. I suppose I’d be willing to help out with someone’s cat if I were available, but, again, I am gone too much.
10 – Middle Name Pride Day: not everyone has one, do you? Is there a story behind your middle name or why you don’t have one? As I mentioned above, my middle name comes from my father’s maternal grandmother. I despise my secular middle name and use only my middle initial, other than on official documents.
11 – World Plumbing Day: We take indoor plumbing for granted – until there's a problem with it. Have you ever suffered a major plumbing emergency? Have you ever tried to fix a plumbing issue on your own? Did you succeed? I remember some major faucet eruption in an apartment I lived in back in the early 1980’s. We figured out how to turn off the water and called the landlord. About the only stuff I fix myself are minor clogs. I have a plastic tool with hooks for pulling gunk out of drains, which works well.
12 – Craft Month: Do you enjoy being creative? What crafts do you participate in? What crafts would you like to try out? I do a lot of crafts, generally involving fiber and/or paper. I knit, crochet, make lace, do embroidery, and do bookbinding, among other things. I’ve only done a very little bit of temari and would like to learn more about it.
13 – Good Samaritan Day: Have you ever been a good Samaritan for a stranger? Has anyone ever been one for you? Do you think people are less likely to help out these days than in the past? I’ve probably done something minor like helping someone pick up something they’ve dropped. And I often help tourists find their way somewhere. People have done similar things for me. I don’t think this has changed over the years, except that more people live in big cities where people are less likely to be helpful.
14 – Crowdfunding Day: Did you know it dates back to the 19th century although the modern resurgence dates from the mid 1990s? Have you ever donated to a crowdfund? Have you ever asked people to donate to you? I’ve donated to a few crowdfunded projects, generally to help specific people I have some sort of connection to (either directly or as a friend of a friend). I’ve never asked people to donate to me.
15 – Brutus Day: Et tu, Brutus? Have you ever (figuratively) stabbed someone in the back? Has someone stabbed you in the back (also figuratively, unless someone actually stabbed you in the back)? I don’t think anyone has ever stabbed me in the back, nor have I stabbed someone in the back.
16 – Sleep Awareness Week: Poor sleep is heavily linked to weight gain, decrease concentration and productivity, increase the risks of heart diseases and strokes, is connected to depression, and can affect emotional and social interactions. Do you get enough sleep most nights? Do you suffer from any sleep-related problems, e.g. insomnia, sleep apnea, etc.? Do you try to stick to a regular sleep routine (same time to bed and waking up), even on weekends? I have a lot of sleep issues. I find it hard to sleep for more than about four or so hours at a time. I’ll get up for a while and then go back to sleep a few hours later. I think I’d be better off keeping more regular sleep hours, but I never manage to.
17 – Saint Patrick’s Day: is this something you celebrate or is it just another day for you? It’s just another day for me.
18 – Quilting Day: The oldest known quilting dates from 3400 BC! Has anyone ever made you a quilt or have you made your own? Have you ever bought a hand-made quilt? Quilting doesn’t hold much interest for me. I admire some art quilts, but it isn’t a craft that appeals to me as something to do.
19 – International Read To Me Day: created to boost literacy this day isn’t just for children. When was the last time you read out loud to someone? What was it you read? Did someone read aloud to you when you were a child? Some couples read to each other – if you have a significant other, is this something you do? I tell stories, but rarely read out loud other than brief passages or poetry. I do often read a poem or some amusing passage from a book during my weekly crafts group, for example. I don’t have a lot of specific memories of people reading to me as a child, but I am sure they must have. The story I’ve been told was that, when I was very little, my father went to college at night and worked during the day. He knew about the importance of reading to us, but he was really busy. He figured we were too young to understand or care what he was reading, so he read to us from his textbooks! Hence, I got bedtime stories from things like “Introduction to Electronics” and “Principles of Cost Accounting for Engineers.” I also have a vague memory of either my father or my grandfather reading newspapers to us.
20 – International Day of Happiness: this was created by the United Nations to spread the idea that happitalism rather than capitalism should be spread around the world. Is happiness a choice? What makes you happy? What little thing can you do to make someone else happy? Did anything occur this month that made you particularly happy? Happiness is only partly a choice. We are all subject to some events that disrupt our happiness, e.g. illness (for ourselves or someone close to us) or some other sort of crisis. That said, we can choose to do things that make us happy, including spending time with people we like. Some things that make me happy are dancing, reading funny things, walking somewhere pretty (especially near water), and eating something good. In terms of making other people happy, I do send cards and letters to friends sometimes, and I think those are appreciated.
21 – International Fragrance Day: Many public spaces, at least in North America, have scent-free policies in place due to the number of people who are negatively affected by perfumes and other scented products. Are you negatively affected by other people's colognes/body sprays/after-shave, etc.? Do you use scented products yourself? I do have a lot of chemical sensitivity issues and often react to people wearing a lot of certain fragrances. At the same time, I love fragrance. I just try to use it subtly.
22 – World Water Day: 783 million people across the world don’t have access to clean water. What water related activity could you do to celebrate this day? Pledge to conserve water? Go swimming? Donate to a water charity? Mostly I avoid single use water bottles. I suppose the other alternative is drinking rum instead.
23 – Peanut Month: do you like peanuts? Peanut butter? I do like both peanuts and peanut butter, though I don’t eat them often. I most often eat peanut butter as emergency food (i.e. when I really just don’t feel like cooking or shopping) or use it in a pasta sauce.
24 – International Waffle Day: How do you like your waffles? Will you be celebrating today by eating any? I like waffles, typically with maple syrup. I’ve also been known to eat them with sour cream, which is probably weird but tasty.
25 – Good Hair Day: apparently GHD straighteners were invented in Yorkshire in 2001 and the GHD stands for Good Hair Day - who knew? Describe your hair. What was your hair like as a child? When do you think your hair was at its best? My hair is a long-standing subject of stress for me. I have typical Ashkenazi Jewish hair - thick and curly. (There’s a Hebrew slang word “leefah” which doesn’t have any real English translation.) This would be fine except I was a teenager in the 1970’s - the era of long, stick-straight hair. I did get my hair chemically straightened for a while, which is terrible for it. Nowadays, I mostly just clip it back in a pony tail. There was a while in my 20’s when I went to the Vidal Sassoon school and got cheap haircuts (maybe even free) and used a lot of mousse and I think my hair looked great, but it was a lot of work.
26 – Spanish Paella Day: yum or yuck? Isn’t all paella Spanish? I’ve had some very good paella, but there are other things I like more.
27– World Theatre Day: what was the last thing you saw performed in a theatre? I went to the ballet this past Friday. As regular readers know, I am a very frequent theatre goer. I tend to favor musicals, though I do see plays, too.
28 – Salt Awareness Week (UK): The recommended intake for salt is 6g per day, pick a meal today and share how much salt there is in it. Hmm, for lunch just a little while ago I ate a piece of matzoh with cream cheese and a bunch of grapes. The matzoh claims not to have any sodium, but the cream cheese has 110 mg per serving. Grapes have only 2 mg of sodium per cup, so I think I did pretty well. But I’m planning to have borscht for supper tonight and that’s about 800 mg of sodium.
29 – World Piano Day: have you ever taken piano lessons? What is your favourite piece of piano music or song? I took piano lessons from three different teachers. My first teacher, Mr. Manassian, had a big thing about not looking at your hands and would hold a notebook over your hands and slap you with it if you looked at them. He also had a thing for making siblings play duets. Then I spent a couple of months studying with Mr. Mattson at the Oceanside Music School, who taught “popular” music. Except his idea of popular music was from the 1940’s, while I wanted to play, say, The Beatles. At least he didn’t make me play duets with my brother. I quit for a long time, but then, when I was in high school, I went back to taking lessons, this time with my best friend’s cousin, Johanna, who was a music student at Queens College. She gave me a wide range of music to play - including what I considered actual popular music - and I was a lot more motivated and enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, she ran off to Brazil to marry her boyfriend. As for a favorite piece of piano music, I remember liking to play Satie’s “Gymnopiedie #3” and “Valse Lente” by Delibes (from the ballet “Coppelia.”) I would love to be able to play all of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
30 – Virtual Vacation Day: if you could go away right now where would you go? Any baseball stadium I haven’t been to yet. (I have four trips planned over the next three months, for what it’s worth.)
31 – Crayon Day: have you any fond memories of using crayons? What were your favourite colours? I used to trace my cardboard paper dolls onto heavy paper and use crayons to design clothing for them. I think I favored colors like blue-violet and violet-blue and the subtleties of the differences between those. Also, later on (not too many years ago), Crayola made scented crayons with rather subversive smells. I particularly remember brown was “dirt” and black was “leather jacket.”
