Chips on a Sandwich | no. 34 | NESTING
Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!' -Robin Williams HOUSE WREN: These tiny birds are pretty much ubiquitous across America. Bubbly, bouncy and...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 33 | BLANKIES
Happiness is a warm blanket, Charlie Brown. -Linus SECURITY: Charles Schulz– creator of the iconic cartoon strip Peanuts– is often given credit for coining...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 33 | INCREDIBLE COPPER
Atomic symbol: Cu, Atomic number: 29 IT'S ANCIENT: Copper (found in volcanic rock) was the first metal humans worked with-- that was about 11,000 years ago....
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 32 | RED
When in doubt, wear red. - Bill Blass WORLDLY RED: The color red has different traits depending where you are in the world: In China it symbolizes luck and...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 31 | THE CICADAS ARE COMING
Don't trust the frog or the swallow. If the cicada doesn't chirrup, it's not summer. -Greek Proverb EMERGENCE: Brood X or the Great Eastern Brood of...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 30 | POLKA DOTS. . .
‘Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 29 | FIVE DECADES OF FORGOTTEN WORDS: Abyssinia to Zozzled
1910s: WWI, the Spanish flu, ratification of prohibition and the Titanic sank. The first decade of the twentieth century was rough: A friend might have asked...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 28 | ODE TO THE OCTOPUS
plural | octopuses (not octopi) MYTHOLOGY: Scandinavia has The Kraken: a mythological octopus-monster that terrorized open waters. But on the other side of...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 27 | BEYOND JINGLE BELLS
THE NUTCRACKER SUITE: The 1960 album by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn takes Tchaikovsky's original score and turns it on its head: Dance of the Sugar...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 26 | IDIOM ORIGIN
Idiom: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual. ONCE IN A BLUE MOON: A rare occurrence. Every...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 25 | A CURIOUS KIND OF GIFT GUIDE
(I don't make money off of links.) Truth and Consequence, NM: The town was originally called Little Hot Springs but that changed after it won a contest put...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 24 | TORTOISE SHELL
testudinal: of, relating to, or resembling a tortoise or tortoise shell. creep: a group of tortoises. DARWIN'S TORTOISE: The story goes that Charles Darwin...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 23 | CELESTIAL STUFF
THE GREAT CONJUNCTION: Winter solstice-- the shortest day of the year-- is December 21st. This year it coincides with an event that only happens every 20...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 22 | POCKETS
It's no use filling your pocket with money if you have got a hole in the corner. -- George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans) There's nothing like a dress with...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 21 | MOTHER NATURE WON'T QUIT
It will grow... ...out of a car examingtheodd.com ...up from a drain pipe reddit ...out of a concrete wall reddit ...in a parking lot reddit ...through a...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 20 | OODLES OF DOODLES
Scrawl, scribble, jot, scratch DOODLERS BRAIN: Do you doodle? Are the margins of your notebooks filled with flowers or figures or thousands of crisscrossed...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 19 | SUPER SMOL
WARNING: potential squealing may occur Smol | smawl when something/someone is super tiny and cute-- so much so that you want to squeeze it/them. BEE...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 18 | THE RIGHT HEIGHT
Breadth, depth, length and width and...height. Why isn't it heighth? If you like consistency, then perhaps height without that extra "h" bothers you. Maybe...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 11 | ZHUZH IT UP
Zhuzh or Zhoosh | verb | to make (something) more lively and interesting, stylish, or appealing, as by a small change or addition. A SIMPLE SHIRT: I could...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 16 | SUNFLOWER POWER
helios (sun) & anthos (flower) THE PLANT: Thank you to the Wisconsin farmer who planted millions of sunflowers this year to spread some much-needed extra...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 15 | BOOK CLUB
“The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.” – Kurt Vonnegut SIPPING ONCE, SIPPING TWICE: The impetus for this week's...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 14 | ALL ALPACA
Alpaca: The non-jerk llama. Salvattore Carlotto Photography ALPACA LIFE: Smaller, nicer and softer than llamas the alpaca is right at home in the mountainous...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 13 | SNAIL MAIL
Creed of the Postal Service Messenger of Sympathy and Love; Servant of Parted Friends; Consoler of the Lonely; Bond of the Scattered Family; Enlarger of the...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 12.1| OPEN SESAME
Sunny day | Sweeping the clouds away | On my way to where the air is sweet | Can you tell me how to get | How to get to Sesame Street... "Two all beef...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 12 | CAMPY
"The glories of a mountain campfire are far greater than may be guessed." -John Muir KOA: Or Kampgrounds of America. There is a network of those little red,...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 10 | N(ICE)
ICE TREAT: There is never less than 2 boxes of the creamy coconut Outshine bars-- 1/2 dipped in dark chocolate-- in my freezer. They are just about perfect...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 9 | PARDON MY INTERJECTION!
Interjection | noun | an abrupt remark, made especially as an aside or interruption. [in no paticular order] OY: Used to express exasperation or dismay....
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 8 | THE BURNT BITS
Who said burnt is bad? TASTE: Sure, a carefully balanced dish is great-- just the right amount of salt and acid-- but sometimes being off balance is...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 7 | STACKED
ROCK CAIRNS: In my top 10 all-time favorite things-- they're more than just a man-made pile of rocks. The word cairn is of Gaelic origin (heap of stones)--...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 6 | TOUCHY FEELY
Here's your weekly offering of bits of joy. Crunch, Crunch. tactile-- adjective-- of or connected with the sense of touch. FIDGET YOUR WORRIES AWAY: Greece...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 5 | MELLOW YELLOW
Here's some bits of joy to crunch on. "There's something very freeing about yellow. When you wear yellow you just have to go for it." -Mobolaji Dawodu,...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 4 | FIRE IN THE SKY
Here’s your weekly offering of bits of joy. Crunch, crunch. GLOWING, GLOWING GONE: I remember July summer nights in Ohio where the ambient temperature was so...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 3 | PAPER DELIVERY
Here's this week's crunchy offering of bits of joy. REALLY, REALLY GOOD PAPER: The Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland is a (gigantic) space dedicated to the...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 2 | Trees please
Here's this week's offering of joyous bits. Crunch, crunch. DAPPLED LIGHT: That light that peeks through the leaves of a tree canopy and projects a shadow--...
Chips on a Sandwich | no. 1 | When it rains, it...
Hi. Welcome to the no. 1 issue of the Chips on a Sandwich newsletter. Here are some bits of joy for you to crunch on: THAT SMELL AFTER IT RAINS: I'm...