R Tramble

I’ve set a deadline for myself to have the soap site up and running by next weekend. I worked on it today.

The Panaroma sales gave me the kick I needed. Now on to take soap photos and get labels printed.

It should be an interesting week.

The bottle is from a collection of old ‘apothekerflaschen’ I bought.

Update: LOL! I had no idea what Bismuth subgallate was.

I promised to post my notes from the paper below this weekend (History of Cleanliness). Instead, I went to Einsiedeln.

I needed it.

Needed to sit.

To be quiet.

To listen.

Then I came home and wrapped bars.

I highly recommend it (the visit to Einsiedeln, not wrapping bars. Although the latter is fun also).

This landed in my inbox today from Tamara Dourney, managing editor of Saponifier:

As many of you know, a massive, 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti near the capital of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, January 12th.

Unfortunately, the country is not equipped to deal with an emergency of this proportion.

With so many individuals in need, Saponifier Magazine has been in contact with Missionary Flights International (http://www.missionaryflights.org), an organization based out of Fort Pierce, Florida. This group is currently flying relief missions to Haiti.
» Read the rest of this entry «

“There is no smoking gun, no private indictment detailing taco night at the Continental Congress. We update Facebook anytime a co-worker cooks fish in the kitchenette microwave, but the Founders are largely silent in their papers when it comes to stench. They swam through a river of it every day, and immersion surely led to indifference.”

Over at McSweeney’s Chris White asks What Did the Founding Fathers Smell Like?

My favorite deduction:

“Free of television and laptops, the men themselves led active, sweaty lifestyles: Adams took daily strolls, Washington and Jefferson were constantly on horseback, and Madison had to keep up with Dolley. They wore heavy clothes even in those burning, putrid summers, and some had a thing for leather pants. Laundry service was probably decent, but bathing wasn’t a full-body activity—most days they would be washing just their face and hands in a basin, leaving bacteria to wage a revolution everywhere else.”

I’ll post notes about the paper I mentioned below over the weekend.

By the way, if you have an iPhone, it would behoove you to check out McSweeney’s iPhone app designed by Russell Quinn. For about CHF 6.00 (about 1-for-1 with the dollar right now) you get the app and a six-month subscription of articles, audio and video from the site.