Books for Breakfast

"For those of us with a bookish bent, reading is a reflexive response to everything. This is how we deal with the world and anything new that comes our way. We have always known that there is a book for every occasion and every obsession. When in doubt, we are always looking things up." Diane Schoemperlen Our Lady of the Lost and Found

The one place you won’t find me today Is at the mall. The stories on the morning news about shoppers mobbing the big box stores for after-Thanksgiving sales repel me. I’d rather buy online from the comfort of my own home, with the TV on in the background and a well-stocked kitchen nearby.

This morning I did take my usual Friday morning walk to the Tattered Cover bookstore in Lower Downtown Denver, but I didn’t buy my usual banana bread from the in store coffee shop. Apparently, the banana bread bakery took the day off, so I’ll have to make my own. As it happens, I have some bananas that have just reached the appropriate stage of over-ripeness.

Last Friday, I finally made the trip to the new Tattered Cover on East Colfax in the former Lowenstein Theater. My friend Lisa Ray Turner was having a book signing for her new book, Ghosts. She and her co-author Kimberly Field told some very funny stories about a famous robbery in the 1920s and ghosts on the third floor. I learned that mint employees are not allowed to bring any coins into the mint and women visitors cannot bring their purses. All the circulating coins in the country come from either the Denver or the Philadelphia mints.

They stopped offering tours for a while after 9/11, but you can now make reservations for a tour. Although I’ve spent my whole life in Denver, I have never been inside the mint. Listening to Lisa and Kimberly made me want to take a tour. Their book would be a great Christmas gift for anyone who is interested in coins, mints or Denver history. And you don’t have to go to the mall to find it.

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Happy Thanksgiving!

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank

This is everyone’s favorite holiday because it isn’t commercialized. We don’t have to send cards, buy presents, send flowers or hang harvest-colored lights. My cynical side thinks this is probably because Thanksgiving comes so close to Christmas and we just don’t have TIME to do all that before we have to do it all next month.

I’ll be celebrating with my dad and stepmother, a simple, quiet meal. I am especially thankful that we don’t have to watch any football on TV, even though the Broncos are playing. One of my personal Thanksgiving traditions is to read Truman Capote’s

nostalgic and funny story, “A Thanksgiving Visitor.” Tonight, I’ll watch Ugly Betty, my favorite new TV show.

Meanwhile, my contributions for dinner are the turkey, gravy, pumpkin pie and my famous Cranberry Salad (recipe below). In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I got the recipe from Rose Hahn over 30 years ago.

Cranberry Salad

Chop 1 bag (12 oz) of fresh cranberries and ¾ cup of walnuts. Mix with ¾ cup of sugar, cover and let stand overnight. Add 2 cups miniature marshmallows and one package prepared Dream Whip. Yummy.

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Art as Business

“Perhaps if we talked of art more as a form of invention and entrepreneurship, we would have more enthusiasm for it as an American enterprise.” Julia Cameron Letters to a Young Artist

Today I visited a man who makes dinosaurs for a living. You can make a business out of anything.

Dennis Wilson wasn’t the kind of kid who could name all the dinosaurs by the age of two. He was an artist, not a scientist. After earning a degree in painting and sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, he started making art from road kill.

You read that right.

It must not have paid very well because he applied for a job at the American MuseumNew York City as a preparator, sculpting and caring for exhibits. He had no background or knowledge in paleontology, but the museum had discovered that it was easier to hire artists and train them in science than to hire scientists and train them to do art. in

He got good at it, realized that not very many people in the country could do what he did, and moved to Denver to open Pangaea Designs. In addition to reconstructing fossils for museums, exhibits and private collectors, he designs animal-shaped toys for a manufacturer.

Dennis’s enthusiasm for his work is obvious as he describes spending six months placing thousands of individual feathers on a mononykus model.

The next time you hear that little voice in your head shooting down your latest great idea by saying, “You can’t make a living doing that,” remember Dennis. And do it anyway. Remember the Chinese proverb, “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.”

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Let’s Retire Retirement

"I'll run out of gas long before I run out of ideas of what to do. I don't have retirement in mind." Robert Redford.

I talked to my friend Kathy last night. She’s probably the most right-brained person I know, so I was eager to share with her Dan Pink’s theory that we are entering the conceptual age, when right brain abilities will become more important than left brain skills we’ve emphasized for the past century or so.

She was initially elated at the idea, then dejected because she thought, “I’m going to be too old to take advantage of it!” At 56, she’s hardly over the hill and I strongly doubt that she will retire at 65. Like most baby boomers, she and I plan to continue working long after the traditional retirement age.

To the astonishment of my twenty something students, retirement doesn’t sound like much fun to us. What are we supposed to do—play bingo and lie around the pool all day? I don’t think so.

In fact, many baby boomers are starting businesses. With their families grown, houses paid off and retirement funds available, it may be the perfect time to start that business. My friend Irv’s wife Bev, who’s in her 70s, is getting bored and planning to go back to work part-time. She had worked for many years in the legal field and now plans to provide document delivery services for lawyers. Sounds like a winner to me.

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved

Telling Stories

“Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.” Max Ehrman, Desiderata

I’ve been reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink about the increased need for right brain functions in our left brain world. My friend Maureen, the marrying woman, recommended it to me. She was reading it as an assignment before she attends a Making it Better Seminar in Las Vegas put on by our mutual friend, Barbara Winter.

This is one of those books that has great ideas and things for me to look up on every page. Pink lists six right brain aptitudes we need to develop, not to replace our left brain skills, but to complement them. I’m reading right now about the need for stories to connect with others. That’s probably one of the reasons blogs are so popular—because readers get to know the authors and their companies on a more personal basis.

An example: I’m more likely to buy Newman’s Own products after reading Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good, the book that tells the story of how the business started and grew.

We remember stories better than facts and we connect with others through our stories. Think about that when you are planning your marketing materials. How can you incorporate a personal story?

This is a good incentive to me to continue my exploration of writing short stories, which my writers’ group forced me into.

©2006 Dixie Darr. All rights reserved