As you may remember, last October I profiled Breast Cancer Action’s “Think Before You Pink” campaign. I had every intention of doing that again this October, and probably will, but something has come to my attention that can’t wait 4 months, it can’t wait four weeks, four hours, or four minutes.
If you’re like me, you love watching “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel with Anthony Bourdain. And if you do watch, you know that Bourdain has a thing for Vietnam, and even more specifically a Vietnamese noodle soup called pho (pronounced fuh, like duh with an f). Every time he’s anywhere in Vietnam you get treated to watching him and his cohorts slurping down this soup while an elaborate voice over explains why this is the soup to end all soups (I suspect the voice overs are because he doesn’t want to stop eating to discuss.).
Now many of my readers live in large cities and I suspect getting yourself a bowl of pho isn’t too rough if there’s any kind of Vietnamese population where you live. With a little research I found two places about 30 minutes from where I live that serve pho, so I picked the one that had good reviews for its pho and was located somewhere I felt confident I could find. So, at the end of May, for my birthday, my husband took me there for lunch so I could finally try pho.
Ellen Evert Hopman discusses Birch Lore.
What is a halo? Well, according to my sources (known as Wikipedia.org), “A halo is an optical phenomenon that appears near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of optical halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high in the upper troposphere. The particular shape and orientation of the crystals is responsible for the type of halo observed. Light is reflected and refracted by the ice crystals and may split up into colors because of dispersion, similarly to the rainbow.” Let’s face it, although cool, that’s not what any of us think of when we’re asked “What is a halo?”
Lady Passion, High Priestess of Coven Oldenwilde and co-author of “The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems”, shares some advice on how to keep your cool when temperatures, and tempers, are running high.
Rebecca reviews Gede Parma’s book “Spirited: Taking Paganism Beyond the Circle”.
I can’t clearly recall when the idea struck my husband and I, but at some point we just went, “We should make flaming drinks for our friends.” And thus began our quest for fire.
Lisa Mc Sherry, author of “The Virtual Pagan” and “Magickal Connections”, shares her thoughts on the Wiccan Rede.
Astute Magical Buffet readers will remember that back in December I commented on a music video by Lady Sovereign, who is a British rap artist. Apparently Perez Hilton wasn’t aware that the video was actually paying homage to the movie “The Warriors”, and instead declared it a video with “Dancing Midget Zombies”. By the way, as proof (as if it was required, but still) that the ladies over at Go Fug Yourself kick ass, they are aware of the film “The Warriors” and name checked it appropriately in a post about Christina Aguilera. Take that Perez! Where was I? That’s right, Lady Sovereign. In the December post I commented that I didn’t know when the album with the song “I Got You Dancing” from the music video would be released. Well it’s out now!
Several years ago for my birthday my husband bought me an antique witch’s costume. As in, a Halloween costume from the late 1800s/early 1900s. It was in pretty rough shape, but still beautiful, and I loved it. I had always planned on giving it a proper display treatment, but to my great shame for years it was displayed by having it hang on a wire coat hanger attached to a tack in the wall.
Recently, prompted by a 60% off all framing sale at our local Michael’s, my long standing shame has been transformed into beaming pride.
Behold!
