Pass the Olives

A Jumble of Opinions on Living, Thinking, Reading, and Making Things

29 August 2018

Demographic Data Source

City-data.com is a not too cluttered easy to use comprehensive source of demographic data for cities in the United States. Interactive maps. Links that work. Information on Schools, Neighborhoods, Assessments, Restaurants, and even Sex Offenders. By collecting and analyzing data from a variety of government and private sources, we’re able to create detailed, informative profiles for every city in the United States. From crime rates to weather patterns, you’ll find the […]

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1 February 2017 ∞

Piping Frosting Lace and Other Patterns

Piping frosting in lace patterns is one of the ways to create an elegant cake. It also takes much more practice than cutting out fondant flowers. From and Craftsy: Everything You Need to Know About Piping Techniques Since piping is most often done on vertical surfaces, practicing on a glass or jar gives the best learning experience. I’m not about to try this but it’s nice to know how if I […]

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6 November 2016 ∞

Another Hitler? The World Watches in Horror

Nov 6, 2016 How could an ignorant, racist, misogynist, isolationist, tax-evading, sex abuser, and financial fraud with orange hair and no respect for factual information be nominated by a major party to become the American President? Is he another Hitler? I’ve been thanked for my efforts at trying to help international readers understand the American election. I wish I had something reassuring to say about Donald Trump. Admittedly it is not much […]

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quote 10 January 2015 ∞

Your Ducks in a Row

As long as you have two or fewer, your ducks are always in a row.

The Covert Comic

6 October 2014 ∞

Perfect Popcorn

For too long had I been popping the perfect popcorn in a hot air popper. Fluffy clouds. No fat! No cholesterol! No taste. Until I re-discovered the real stuff. After years and years of this, a friend brought real popcorn to a movie screening: Popped in a pan over a fire with oil. And buttered. Now the hot air popper is reserved for Christmas when we make strings of popcorn […]

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29 July 2014 ∞

Brand Colors

A lovely online source of brand colors complete with color numbers—no guessing. Includes colors from Adobe, Airbnb, Amazon, AOL, Basecamp, Behance, Better Business Bureau (they have colors?), Bing, bitly, Boeing, Digg, Dribbble, Drupal, Ebay, Firefox (a big palette), Freshbooks (very fresh), Google, HootSuite, Kickstarter, Klout, Microsoft, and many more. Memorable address BrandColors.net. Has a search function to find one quickly. Click on the colors to see the color number. You […]

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25 July 2014 ∞

Image sources

IM Free provides a curated overview of freely available photos, all available for commercial use. All photos are thoroughly grouped and tagged, and usually released under a Creative Commons license. Overall, there are literally thousands of available items which you can use right away. And if you need even more pictures, Gratisography, Unsplash andPicjumbo are further resources worth looking into, with a growing collection of free high-resolution pictures that you can use for commercial and private projects. […]

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24 July 2014 ∞

New York Times Chronicle

Counting Names and Phrases in the Times The New York Times Chronicle is a new resource for “visualizing language usage in New York Times news coverage throughout its history,” which began in 1851. Enter a word or phrase and it will appear as a colored line on a graph showing the percentage of articles it appeared in from 1851 to the present. You can search several words or phrases sequentially and each one will appear in […]

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21 July 2014 ∞

Comics

ComicBook+ is an archive of public domain Golden and Silver Age Comics — books and newspapers. 24,184 books as of today. Categorized by type and date. It also has a forum for comics lovers and collectors. All can be downloaded without cost (donations welcome). And you can subscribe of $7.00 a year. Uses PayPal, which is very convenient. No entering credit card or passing a vision test to read a scrunched up […]

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