you fancy huh?

The Emmy-winning Downton Abbey is a period drama series set in 1912 in the fictional city of Downton Abbey, and follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants during the reign of King George V. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, written by Lady Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon (yes, that’s right, Countess), is basically the biography of Highclere Castle, focusing on Lady Almina and the Carnavon family. So, we have a fictional series on PBS that has become extremely popular, winning a ton of writing, cinematography and costume awards. And now we have a biography, written by a family member that spans the time period covered by the show’s second season.  The book is extremely historical. Lady Fiona shows us how the Edwardian castle operated from the daily chores of servants to the food served, the hunting on the grounds and the reception of royalty. She takes us inside the hospital Lady Almina set up at Highclere during World War I, saving hundreds of wounded soldiers. I am going to go ahead and chalk this bio up as a history lesson worth reading.

african american history in the capitol.

I had never really thought of a street having a history until my friends and I re-made the Beatles Abbey Road album cover when we were in London. When you think about it, anything of consequence that happens outside usually happens on a street. Therefore, streets have more history than one might think. I mean, my entire childhood was spent on my neighborhood streets. Whoa, epiphany happening over here. Blair A. Ruble is someone who understands the significance of a street and its history, so much in fact that he wrote a biography about one.

Here’s a little background: In its cultural heyday, U Street was known as Black Broadway, housing the largest African American community in Washington D.C. The neighborhood includes the works of African American architects, including John Lankford, who was then referred to as the "dean of black architecture" and noted for the True Reformer Building at 1200 U Street NW. U Street has long been a center of Washington's music scene, with the Lincoln Theatre, Howard Theatre, Bohemian Caverns, and other clubs and historic jazz venues. I don’t know how many streets have biographies written about them, but U Street's is definitely the hippest.

Talk about STREET credibility. Ha, yeah that was me being funny.

a little something for the herbivores.

Some of you are like me and think that eating low fat, plant based meals sounds absolutely atrocious. If loving bacon is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. Well, I started singing a different tune after perusing Lindsay Nixon’s The Happy Herbivore and realized that eating green isn’t just for those of you like Little Foot and crew who don’t eat meat at all. Seeing as I am not someone who eats meat at every meal, I was totally into a lot of Nixon’s healthy recipes.  Eating vegan, even if it is just a few times a week, packs some major benefits for your bod. Those of you who want to begin a full-time vegan regimen can expect to lose major pounds in a matter of weeks. I honestly don’t know how vegans survived before this cookbook, which includes over 175 recipes. Their lives must have been much less fun. I have noticed that most of the ingredients required can be bought at your average grocery. Hello convenience. The only recipes I have tried so far are the smoothies, and I have absolutely loved them. There’s an entire Mexican section that I am dying to take a whack at. It includes nacho cheese dip.Vegan Mexicans? I’d pay to taste that.

***For a chance to win a FREE copy email your name, address and this book title to: jenileerose@yahoo.com!

here, let me make you smarter.

I know summer is upon us, and we are all far more interested in reading for pleasure than reading for learning. Bare with me. Or just leave this review for the teachers. Go on; pick up your raunchy summer read you cowards.

Author, Ann L. Mullen, of Degrees of Inequality: Culture, Class, and Gender in American Higher Education is very clear in her opinion that the US has NOT delivered on its promise to address the country's underlying social inequalities, regarding class and gender. Notice that I said class and gender, not race. Mullen includes interviews with undergraduates from Yale University and Southern Connecticut State, demonstrating a clear line dividing wealthy and poor students even though the colleges are merely two miles apart.  An interesting, yet not surprising aspect of Mullen’s research suggests that universities play their part in informally deselecting certain students. Athletes, for instance, receive double the admissions advantage over ethnic-minority applicants. Even academically talented students from poor backgrounds are unlikely to apply to elite institutions.

Women tend to go to college majoring in subjects that lead to lower paying jobs than men. My opinion? Women are more thoughtful. They think of what they can do for people and the world. Their goals tend to lean towards making a difference rather than making a living. Let’s be honest, our bodies were specifically designed to carry tiny human beings, and we can’t booze up for over a year. THAT my friends is selflessness. And maybe, those jobs that are highly populated by women (human services, childcare, education, etc.), you know, the ones that HELP people, should have their pay increased.  Boys, let’s just agree to disagree on this one.

flight attendants have the best stories.

I love telling stories about the number of insane people who have crossed my path in the past 26 years of my life. Between my travels and jobs, specifically as a substitute teacher, I have hundreds of wild tales. Some of my more silly stories are set on planes. My flight to San Diego was a hoot let me tell ya. I flew Southwest and their seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Being the last person to board the plane, I was sat next to this 83-year-old married couple. The wife, Kitty was on oxygen and she prefers to sit in the aisle, but she had to sit next to the window because of her tank. She was very flustered, so her husband John and I spent the flight entertaining her, calming her down and what not. Since I was so helpful, the flight attendant kept giving me free drinks. Then all of the sudden people around me were passing me drink coupons on account of I had the least desirable seating arrangement. I wound up with four drink coupons and two free drinks, AND I had given two of the drink coupons away, you know, to share the wealth. I ended up arriving in San Diego buzzed, Kitty kept expressing how much she adored me and enjoyed listening to my crazy antics, and John got to relax. Win, win, win.

Well, what I have is NOTHING compared to Heather Poole’s collection of crazy stories being a flight attendant for fifteen years. Cruising Altitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet is Poole’s memoir filled with hilariously honest accounts of her experiences in the air. Take a moment to think about the people you’ve had on your own flights; the drunks, the vommiters, the panickers.  I was forced to create words just to describe these people. Imagine having to calm down these types every day. I no longer wonder what it’s like to be a flight attendant. And I am glad I chose an alternative career…. as an unemployed teacher.

tiffany lamps.

To give credit where credit is due, I am going to give a little shout out to Clara Drischoll, who invented and designed the stunning Tiffany Lamps and never received the credit for it. No lie. Everyone thought that stained glass master, Louis Comfort Tiffany created the popular lamps. In 2005, the truth came out, and art historians named Drischoll the mastermind, only a hundred years too late guys.

Clara Drischoll is not here to receive her proper praise, so Susan Vreeland decided to write a novel imagining her life. I presume it is tough to write a biography about someone who people didn’t know was important until sixty years after their death. Clara and Mr. Tiffany is set in New York City in the 1890’s. Clara is a strong-willed woman fighting to keep her passion alive in the male-dominated art world. Whether you’re artistic or not, you will enjoy this historical fiction. I cannot help but wonder what other men in history were the face of a woman’s artistic design.

one of the best cartoonists working today.

I love when the Sunday funnies are actually funny. That being said, I love the Stephan Pastis Pearls Before Swine comic strips. Because Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw A Cover With Your Left Hand is a graphic novel compiled from the strips that ran between the summer of 2009 and the spring of 2010, and the gangs all here with their fabulous one liners that will definitely get a chuckle out of you.

For those you who are not familiar with this popular comic strip, let me give you a little taste of Pastis’ more recent work:

It's a cute kind of funny, am I right?