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Strega Nona Meets Her Match by Tomie dePaola

Wherein Strega Nona defeats her business competition by sending in a saboteur.

I was researching books that I might give to my niece and I came across this gem.

Strega Nona is a traditional healer in a little town in Calabria. Her friend Strega Amelia is a healer from over the mountain. Strega Amelia comes for a visit and sees what a good business Strega Nona has in the town and decides to compete with her. Strega Amelia says, “I see she still uses the old-fashioned ways too. Hmm, I’ll have to think about this.” Strega Amelia goes home and returns a week later, setting up her shop. She offers modern, effective remedies and “free sweets and coffee with every visit.”

Strega Amelia is an instant hit! After a few weeks, everyone in the town has realized that Strega Amelia supplies better products and services than Strega Nona and Stella Nona’s tired old business has dried up completely.

So what does Strega Nona do? She gets her helper, Big Anthony to infiltrate Strega Amelia’s company. Then, when Amelia is away on business, Big Anthony finds his moment and sabotages Amelia’s corporate image. At the height of his attack, he “forgets” how to operate the headache relieving machine and almost kills the mayor.

Strega Amelia returns the next day only to be run out of town. Strega Nona works her magic one last time and makes sure her fingerprints aren’t on the crime.

And everyone lives happily ever after. (?!?!?!) Yes, it really plays out like that. This book sends a very bad message.

In the next Strega Nona book she gets even with her mean neighbor by framing her for a felony. Then Strega Nona orders a hit on the mayor. Hilarity ensues!

Useful information if you own an AprilAire 2400 whole house air cleaner:

The OEM filter (model 401) for the AprilAire 2400 is a MERV 8 (via since it mentions “70% of 3 micron particles”)

(more info about MERV ratings) (image via)

You can get filters that catch smaller sizes but they get expensive. For example, the best, a MERV 16 filter costs about $120 instead of the regular $25. Also, I think higher MERV ratings require a more powerful blower (see the image and mention of “Final pressure”) and/or it will wear out your existing blower faster.

Everyone (except Julia) smokes in my parents’ house. They use standard filters and I’ve noticed that all my clothes smell of smoke after I’ve been there for a couple days. I’ll try getting a MERV 11 filter for a while and we’ll see how it goes.

Another reason Microsoft Exchange sucks:

I asked my company’s IT guy…
>> Do you know how I can allow my Windows and Exchange passwords can be different?
(backstory: when I set the differently, I would get my email only like once a week… the stars would have to align or something. Maybe the data had to flow just right over the VPN or something)

He found an email from a Microsoft Tech saying, in essence that no, your Exchange password can’t be different from your Windows login password.

From: Eriq Neale [MSFT] – view profile
Date: Sat, May 15 2004 10:46 am
Email: a-er…@online.microsoft.com (Eriq Neale [MSFT])
Groups: microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs
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| Hi,
|
| We just created several new users and want to have the users change their
email – not Windows logon – password from either OWA or from Outlook.
|
| Can someone explain how that can be done.
|
| Thanks!
| alex

Hey Alex.

Unfortunately, you cannot have a separate e-mail password that is different
from the Windows password. Exchange 2000/2003 relies on Active Directory
for user authentication for e-mail clients. This is the same place where
Windows logon authentication is performed as well. This is different than
the behavior in Exchange 5.5, when Exchange maintained its own
username/password database.

Eriq Neale
Microsoft Corporation

Get Secure! – www.microsoft.com/security

I find his .sig to be particularly funny. Now, my work Exchange password (which is difficult for me to change) is tied to my Windows logon password on my laptop. My laptop logon password is loosely tied to my home computer because it is a nice convenience when the passwords are the same, then I don’t have to type my username/login when I want to view shared files. Arg!

And what if I wanted to be on 2 Exchange servers at once? I would have to tell one of them, “Could you please change my Exchange password to xxxxx? I want it to be the same as the password on the other system. Thanks.”

Charlotte and I were thinking of going to England on a trip. Instead she’s moving to San Francisco. I was starting to make a to-go list for our trip. Instead of archiving it on my computer, I’ll archive it on my web host… IE: you get to see it

Continue reading ‘Places to go in England’ »

If you have a Kel Tec SU-16, you might love it except for one little detail… The takedown pin in the handle is so tight that you need a tool to insert or remove it. I found a great hack on what to do about this.

You can replace the takedown pin with a 1/4″ hitch pin from a hardware store. It works peachy keen. The pin stays in perfectly and is easy to remove by pulling on the attached ring. (Source)

One of my headlights went out last week. I went to Kragen Auto Parts and got new bulbs. I paid a little extra and got Sylvania XtraVision headlamps. I had bought Silverstar headlamps but I found out that they only have an average life of 1 year in a car. $60 a year on automotive lighting… blah.

The XtraVision are marketed as having “up to 20% more illumination” (source). After pulling out my 8 year old bulbs and installing them, I came to realize that “up to 20%” includes “only barely noticeable”. :-(

Oh well. At least I had fun figuring out how to change the headlamps in a 1998 Chrysler Sebring LX Convertible. The first one took half an hour of fiddling. The second took 3 minutes. :-)

I was unfortunately unable to change the direction they point. I found the controls but I think they had aged and wouldn’t move properly.

Does it bug anyone else that Sylvania is using shortened life span as a sort of “planned obsolescence” money maker? They can easily make them last 3,000 hours for almost no extra cost but they choose to make them last 850 hours. Halogens last that long as a matter of course; that’s what the halogen is for. I think they need some healthy competition in the marketplace. Anyone want to start an automotive lighting company?

I  was always enamored of those Leptoprin commercials… I’ve talked about them to friends… talking about the announcer’s piercing blue eyes looking right into my chubby heart. Her intensity driving me to say, “I -am- strong enough to buy such a powerful weight loss compound! I am! When is a diet pill worth $153 a bottle? Now! Dammit! Where’s my check book?” But it’s like other people didn’t stay up as late as I did or something. None of my friends believe Leptoprin Lady exists! Here’s a little proof (and a bit of a homage) that the stuff really exists.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

The Federal Trade Commission loves Leptoprin so much, they got someone to make a transcript of the whole commercial.

Continue reading ‘I Love Leptoprin’ »

I was in a Walgreens today in the footcare aisle. I’ve had yucky toes from a nail fungus for a long while so I was checking out the latest products to rid myself of the yuck. I found NonyX Nail Gel. It claims to get rid of built-up nail keratin, which has been a yucky side effect of the yucky fungus. I was interested.

I noticed that NonyX was by far the most expensive product on the shelf at $25. “Hmm, “I thought,” it must be powerful stuff if it costs that much.” I almost walked out with a bottle. But since I’m such a comparison shopper, I decided to do a little homework first…

Ingredients: Water, ethanoic acid, xanthan gum, fragrance.

Hmm.. What is “ethanoic acid”? A google search says it’s just another name for acetic acid… the main active ingredient in vinegar!

They are selling 4 oz bottles of vinegar for $25. What a country!

I’ve started my toes on $2/gallon vinegar treatments. I’ll tell you in a month how it went.

————————————————–
Update 9-5-12:
Over the years the posts and discussion on my site have grown. Here is a large sampling:

1. Nonyx Nail Gel
2. Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 2
3. Nonyx Nail Gel: Part 3
4. Fungal Nail Infection Treatment
5. Zetaclear
6. Fungavir
7. Fungavir Review: Meh
8. Fungisil is a Scam
9. Funginix is a scam
10. Search my blog for the word “fungus”

I saw mention of Rainbow Grocery on Yelp. I thought, “oh that’s nice, another snazzy grocery store.” Boy was I wrong.

Their cheese shop is quite formidable. I think I counted 4 wild-picked mushroom varieties and at least another 5 varieties present! Their spices and bulk food sections are exceptional. It is crunchy-granola heaven. And, they have a huge variety of exciting specialty foods.

But most important of all, they have a tap stuck out of a 55 gallon drum of Vermont Grade B Maple Syrup! And while Charlotte gave me a tremendous gift by finding and bringing Trader Joes Maple Syrup all the way from Boston, this…. THIS is the stuff! I just compared them head to head and all it takes is a glance to tell the difference. The Coomb’s syrup is darker, thicker and has a richer smell. And the taste… now I’ll say that Trader Joe’s makes a fine syrup. It really is. In fact, it’s probably what more people would prefer. But this is maple syrup that tastes like driving past a sugar house in early spring with the billowing steam that you’d say looks dangerous until you roll your window down and then the smell encompasses you like a jet plane diving into a cloudbank. It’s like living in another, infinitely more delicate world for a million years in a second. It brings to mind the colors of the ground during mud season when the melting snow, recently uncovered grass and previously frozen dirt turn into a slippery, boot-sucking menace with deep scars where vehicles foolishly tried to cross from the driveway to the relative safety of black-top.

Good maple syrup makes me so happy. Thank you Charlotte. Thank you Rainbow Grocery. Thank you Coomb’s Family of Brattleboro Vermont!

I went to “TANGO CEVICHE I” at the Red Poppy Art House this past weekend. What great fun!

There’s going to be a “SUSHI-SOUKOUS: A delicacy of fish, and a dance from the heart of Africa” Saturday, April 15th, 1pm-4pm. You should go with me.

And another Tango Ceviche sometime in May

Here’s the blurb from the Tango Ceviche class:

Continue reading ‘Red Poppy Art House is good, Dance with me’ »