This photo is important...

Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

There are many reasons this photo, from the Library of Congress is so important.

1. As many of the commenters point out, not much has ever been said about black women working as "Rosie the Riveter" during the war (and, hey, it's Black History Month, so that's important reason number one).

2. As part of the LOC's commons photoset, this photo is open to tagging from the general public. Turns out, this one has over 70 tags, making it one of 15 that have approached or exceeded Flickr's 75 tag limit.

3. Perhaps because of the subject matter, this is a popular photo. At the time of this entry, it had been made a favourite by 444 Flickr users and had been viewed 64,472 times -- that's several thousand more than the total views on all 7900 items in my photostream.

There's a lot to love about this photo. It's composition is artistic -- it is as beautiful as any Renaissance portrait -- and it's subject matter fascinating -- a brief moment in American History when true equality seemed attainable.

WWE action in Victoria....

OK, this is too odd not to post. Reading our local newspaper (online), I discover that pro wrestler Chris Jericho got into an altercation after a show here on Saturday that ended with assault charges. The incident was captured and posted on YouTube.

The article makes it sound like Jericho went after a bystander but from the way I see it, a bunch of morons rushed his vehicle, taunting him, even pushing him until finally, he pushes back. This makes me very happy that we were up-Island yesterday afternoon.

Here's the video:

Movie and Maple Syrup

Friday night, the three of us went out to see Coraline (in 3D) -- my only beef was the extra $4 each we had to pay for the 3D glasses; the movie was fine. If you're curious, I posted a full review at the MediaNook.

Today, we decided to actually take in one of the events I regularly post on FrugalVictoria -- the Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival at the BC Forest Discovery Centre north of Duncan. I actually had no idea you could tap Big Leaf Maples which are native to the region -- I thought all maple syrup came from Sugar Maples. Nifty.*

We watched a tapping demonstration -- someone actually drilled a hole in a tree, hammered in a plastic spout and attached a 15L wine bag with some tubing (unlike the traditional bucket-under-the-spout method which offers a healthy dose of bugs along with the sap). We checked on the bag about an hour later and there was a good amount of sap already collected, maybe a litre or two. Of course it takes about 45L of sap to get 1L of syrup -- which explains why those litres were selling for $20 each.

However, after tasting several varieties, we happily bought three bottles from local farms and families, and continued with our visit. We rode the train, explored the grounds, and let kiddo run off some steam at the playground. Then we headed into Duncan for lunch (at a great little hole-in-the-wall diner) before heading home.

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* Turns out Bigleaf Maple tapping is pretty new to the Island and the subject of recent research at UVic, too. What I find most interesting is that the industry could actually increase biodiversity in the region because the trees are often seen as a "pest species" and are specifically removed. By proving their value, these trees may be saved.

Words

I've been playing word games again (Lexulous on Facebook) and thinking about language and words again. I recently put in my first order from Threadless and will soon be the owner of this tshirt:


I've always been drawn to word art, especially when people use words in an unexpected way, like these dream tickets (that just sold out!!) from MoonFaces on Etsy:

(She has other tickets available... I really like the idea.)

Of course, you can also get my words on a t-shirt, mug, messenger bag or in a frame; buy my zombie haiku stuff at Cafe Press:



And, just to be silly, my del.icio.us tags in word-art form using Wordle....

Things I've Learned This Week

I learned that...

... someone listened: the roll-out of the wrong-headed CPSIA legislation is being postponed for a year so that some of the many questions raised regarding handcrafted and other goods can be examined and hopefully answered

... if you are "required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction, you may not use the Facebook Service."

... Wil Wheaton's twitter feed (@wilw) is followed by a ridiculous number of people -- enough that he felt the need to explain himself.

... I will soon be reviewing films again; this time for Game-Boyz.com -- I will let you know when reviews are up and active.

... trying to use Contribute in a networked environment SUCKS, plain and simple.

... there was a strike on Second Life (workers at IBM Italy) back in 2007. I think that pre-dates my knowledge of the existence of Second Life.