Tiny Tuesday : : A Weed

No wonder the wildflowers are quite spectacular in our field in the spring. It is now bone dry and the field has been mowed, yet these stalwart little dandelion lookalikes have survived it all. This one is just about to let go of one of its many little seed parachutes to float about on the wind and find a place to plant itself. The whole head is not much bigger than my thumbnail.

We have spent a frustrating couple of weeks trying to navigate the internet in search of a replacement for our two nightstand lamps, one of which seems to be broken beyond repair. I bought them at Whole Earth Access. Was the Whole Earth Catalog a thing in Britain as it was here? It began in 1968 as a sort of counterculture book, a how-to manual, a literary review a life guide and a collection of readers' reviews and recommendations of everything from computational physics to goat husbandry, published by Stuart Brand, a one time member of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters. He predicted the importance of personal computers as a way to empower ordinary people. He inspired Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. He was incredibly influential in a sort of anonymous way. He said a lot of memorable things, but one of my favorites is And remember this was the 70's We were: f*#k with it, mess with it, try it sideways. That's what it was all about. The final copy of the Whole Earth Catalog was published in 1974 and on the back cover was this footnote and final advice: Stay hungry. Stay foolish

I still have a copy of the Whole Earth Catalog, yellowing and falling apart but more fascinating than ever. 

But I digress...Whole Earth Access was started as a countercultural retail store in 1969 by Larry  Farb and his brother Gene, the husband of my friend Toni. It was like a K Mart for Yuppies and I loved it. And I bought our two George Kovaks nightstand lights there in about 1988. They have lasted until last week when one of them died and seems impossible to resurrect. I found one online but have not evolved enough to tackle ordering it on eBay, plus I'm sure If I succeeded, the other one would be guaranteed to die .

Instead, I found a place that sells newer versions of the George Kovaks reading lamp and went there in hopes of being able to see one. It turns out it is a wholesale operation and I still had to choose one out of a catalog, but their prices reflect how much mark up there is in the prices in brick and mortar retail stores. 

I think I'll install the remaining 1988 model lamp in the 'library' and settle down with my crumbling copy of The Whole Earth Catalog. It will certainly be a trip....