Blogging in Style

Let's take a look around the blogs tonight:

Steel Valley Outdoors is Camping in Style. Check it out for some video.

A Commonplace Book is a bridesmaid. A bridesmaid to be reckoned with:

According to Bizarre Origins of Wedding Traditions, “Historically, that dress you’ll never wear again was actually selected with the purpose of tricking the eye of evil spirits and jealous ex-lovers (spicy!). Brides’ faithful attendants were instructed to wear a dress similar to that of the bride so that during their group stroll to the church it would be hard for any ill-willed spirits or former boy-toys to spot the bride and curse/kidnap/throw rocks at her.”

First of all, it’s a great dress (really it is). Now, I’m fully prepared to deal with evil spirits. Jealous ex-lovers too, for that matter, and this bit of history led me to speculate which of Nina’s exes might actually turn out to be a wedding day stalker (I won’t name him here, but let’s just say he published a book about a certain evil and anorexic blond conservative media gadfly/demon). Is it wrong that I fantasize just a little about going all crazy white girl on him? It’s that displaced anger again.

The job of the best man was even better: “the original duty of a “Best Man” was to serve as armed backup for the groom in case he had to resort to kidnapping his intended bride away from disapproving parents. The “best” part of that title refers to his skill with a sword, should the need arise.”

Shit. Why can’t the maid of honor have a sword?

Shout Youngstown covers the recent Regional Learning Conference at the Youngstown Club:

One of the benefits of the meeting was the ability for individuals to interact with their counterparts from each region - bloggers met other bloggers, economic development professionals met other economic development professionals, and neighborhood leaders met other neighborhood leaders.

And after lunch, participants moved throughout the Youngstown Club to attend presentations on the following topics:

* Data-Driven Decision Making
* CDCs as Agents of Change
* Addressing Vacancy
* Economic Development Strategies
* Designing Sustainable Communities
* Networking and Blogging for Change

Conversations

Yoments laments having "the conversation" with students and the point of no return:

Every semester, I have to have the it-isn’t-mathematically-possible-to-pass-this-course conversation with a student. And it usually happens during week ten or eleven of the semester when the student has gotten around to adding up his or her grades. Sometimes, the student has spent the past ten weeks skipping, texting, and making excuses for late work.

A Commonplace Book shares a story of spring:

While we were eating, Mira stopped in midbite, and with the wrinkliest of eight-year-old noses asked, “Mommy what’s in your hair?”

Jaci is relieved to find her son retains his innocence for another day:

"At McDonald's, when we were playing, there was boy who said, 'she said the "S" word and the "A" word.' " Then he says, "I know what the "S" word is but I don't know what the "A" word means?"
Me, semi-mortified: "You know what the "S" word means?!"