Freyja

Freyja, a mythological Princess of Sweden, is the Norse goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. She is the patron of crops and birth, a symbol of sensuality, and is called upon in matters of the heart.

Freyja is also associated with war, battle, death, magic, prophecy, and wealth. She lives in a beautiful palace called Folkvangr, a place where love songs are always played, and her hall is Sessrumnir. It is here she receives one half of the dead lost in battle while Odin receives the other half at Valhalla.

Freyja marries Od (a version of Odin) and like the Egyptian goddess Isis and Greek goddess Aphrodite, travels the world seeking her lost husband and weeping tears of gold. Her attributes are the necklace of the Brisings, a cloak of bird feathers, which allows its wearer to change into a falcon, and a chariot pulled by two cats.

photo source unknown.

Starpreya?

While online looking for information about Swedish mythology, I came across this small controversy. Back in 2006, a Korean coffee shop was taken to court by Starbucks for copyright infringement. In response, Starpreya said their name was taken from the Norse goddess Freya with the F changed to a P for pronunciation reasons. They claimed their logo had nothing to do with Starbucks.

According to ipkitten, the court threw the case out because 1) the words looked different; 2) Star is commonly used in trade marks and so wasn’t distinctive; 3) neither ‘preya’ nor ‘bucks’ had any special meaning, and so consumers would be unlikely to separate the trade marks into their constituent elements, referring to both sometimes as Star; and 4) there was no evidence that Elpreya (the parent company) had plagiarised Starbuck’s logo.

What do you think? Should Starbucks have won the case?

Best Friends Forever

1965 Baltimore, MD. Me on the left and Susan on the right. We were best friends that year and then my family moved to Panama. Susan and I kept in touch through letters but lost track during the 1970s when high school parties and drama took over. I have been telling all of my friends that my facebook page wouldn't be complete until Susan and I were back in touch. She sent me a friend request a few days ago. There's nothing better than finding your first-grade BFF after so many years ... and nothing better than still thinking she's great.

Full Circle

and back to somewhere.

Love Nest

From colourlovers.com. A great place to see colors, patterns, and potential palettes.

Mixed Martial Arts

A logo I like from a local gym called the Fifty/50 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

November 26, 1930

Dearest Katherine,

No apologies for the paper. Its all I have.

I wish I was down there. I’m tired and lonesome, (yes in a dorm.) I feel blue and want to weep on someone’s shoulders. In fact I miss Marjorie somethin’ awful tonight. And I want to be babied. But enough of my troubles.

I don’t get to go to Knoxville. Made the hockey team as a sub. Tell Mother for me and I’ll write as soon as I find time. Or you can read extracts from this.

We’ve started working real hard on the vauderville. Tumbling is going to be real cute. The leader has more cute new things that we haven’t done up here. And we are spending more time practicing. Even some Thurs. night.

Hope we win Volley Ball and hockey. I crave going to Bowling Green Dec. 6.

I wish you a real good time Thurs. Guess I’ll sleep late then catch up on back work. And Reflector reports have to be in Friday. I’ve about a million to get in cause the Phys. Ed. Dept. can have as much space as we want. I’ll tear hair long over those. Guess maybe it will be a good time to do a lot of things that I’ve just let slide.

Frances is coming Thurs. I can’t wait to see her. Hope the old crazy stays with me some. If she doesn’t I’ll certainly be disappointed, whole heaps. I didn’t know I was so anxious to see her.

I can’t stand this cold weather. It snowed last night and everybody had a couple of duck fits. Not me, I curled up in a knot and got cold.

Went to the Belmont tonight to see “Common Clay.” It’s real good. Everyone raved so I couldn’t resist the temptation. It had a moral and all but at that it was enjoyable and almost reformed me in a person positively sprouting wings. Not that I was ever bad. Am I? Anyhow it was as good as all I had heard about it.

Well, changed my mind. You needn’t read to Mother. I’ll write while I finish playing marbles.

Lots of love,
‘Cile.

P.S. Am going to Knapp Sat. night. A couple of the summer school foks will be here. Wonder if we will freeze.

October 16, 1930

Dearest Katherine,

I’ve had good intentions for a week. Believe it or not. But life is so complicated – for various reasons (most ten good reasons)

1. “Pee Wee” doesn’t love me.
2. I’m in disgrace with Marjorie – don’t know why and I’m too stubborn to ask.
3. I’ve got too much studying to do.
4. I’m sleepy and tired.

Why go on? All I ever do when I write you is gripe. But I feel as if I could unburden my soul of all my numerous worries to you.

Had heap much large time out at Knapp last week-end but haven’t recuperated yet – slept about 3 hrs. and indulged generally. Then had to come in the next morning and put on a Field Day for the city and country schools. The kids must know we are dissipated – and the most crabbed bunch on earth. We all had circles half way down our faces.

Thanks just lots for the funny pieces – I laughed over ‘em just lots and got a huge kick out of them.

“Psi Kaps” went out last night and fried steak over a camp fire and held our meeting around it. More fun. And good food. But it degenerated into a regular camp meeting and open confessions that should be good for our souls. Some of ‘em were certainly startling enough – just knocked more people off the X-mas tree.

Any excitement there – none here, I’m running too hard.

Oh, I have to teach Swimming Friday with the instructor sitting on the side lines criticizing – (groans). Besides I had to conduct Formal gym class and I marched the class up in the wall. It was awful - besides giving a command that they couldn’t execute!!!

I’m just gotta quit and retire to my little bed on the roof.

Lots of love,
‘Cile.

The Grocer's Son

There’s nothing profound about “The Grocer’s Son” but the Provencal country side is a treat and the pace of the story enhances the pleasure of the cinematography. I was able to take in the visual details while still reading subtitles.

The lead characters (Antoine and Claire) are highly watchable but not always likeable. It's the old folks on the grocer's route that make the story interesting. The scene I like best is when Antoine fixes the old egg provider's chicken coop and then pretends to have brought in the sheep when he realizes the old man's a bit senile. Of the four movies reviewed this week, this one's my fav.

Sunshine Cleaning

Definitely a feel-good movie. We walked out of “The Wrestler” because it was too gruesome and into "Sunshine Cleaning," a story about a single mom who starts a business cleaning up crime scenes. Rose gains self esteem and finds a way to deal with her own mother’s suicide through the new enterprise …

This movie is about family, about doing the best you can, and about helping the ones you love. Maybe in the end, you'll consider getting a l'il bastard devil tattoo. I know I did.

The Reader

I first heard about “The Reader” on Charlie Rose and as is the case with all Holocaust movies had mixed emotions about whether or not I would take the time to watch it. But as you know, I’m a Kate Winslet fan and having become interested in her acting career, I rented the DVD last week.

Hanna's crime is horrific but an evaluation of her responsibility or guilt is up to you. I was more interested in whether or not she loved Michael in his youth or only came to love him later in life when he sends her books on tape. Either way, throughout the long course of their relationship, it’s Hanna’s needs that are of primary importance. Kate, in the interview, says they meant to portray the love affair as genuine but I’m not convinced. Hanna was capable of great emotion as is evidenced by her reaction to music and literature but she did not extend this depth of feeling to humans. For the complete interview with Kate Winslet and David Kross go here.

The Soloist

Worthy of an Oscar. I was blown away by Robert Downey, Jr's, performance in this movie. Rather than summarize the plot, I will point out one aspect of the presentation I found interesting (and will do the same with all movie reviews to follow).

The relationship between Steve Lopez and his wife is ambiguous. The two were married, have separated, live apart, have a grown child, continue to work together, and even share their most profound moments together in loving comfort. It's real. You don't know if the two will reconcile completely in the traditional sense, and the director doesn't tell you, but there's depth in the relationship, as there is in the film, and in the connection between the newspaper reporter and the violin soloist. Well worth your hard-earned dollars.

Peonies

My most favorite flowers ... because they're lush and full and decadent ... and because the water in the vase stays clean and fresh the entire time (pic found here). In honor of my recent home improvement and those Swedish decorating blogs I like: made in persbo and purple area.