Postcards from the Web

Here are some places I visited recently and liked.

First, a small but very pretty website for moms. My short stay there was as refreshing as a nice cup of tea.

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I was pleased to learn that dull men have made a comfortable place for themselves on the Web. Dull Men's Club is "one of the only web sites--perhaps the only one--that is free of exclamation marks". And they add this note "To readers who object to our using colors on this website, who feel the colors are too exciting, that the site should be simply in black-and-white (with perhaps a few touches of gray) we offer our sincere (Dull Men are always sincere) apologies. To these readers, we offer this suggestion: print our the pages using a black-and-white printer. You also can dull down the appearance of this site on your browser...click here to learn how."

If you're a guy (or are married to one) who was born to be mild, I really think you should amble (no need to rush) over there for some low-key entertainment.

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National Public Radio has brought back an old favorite. Fifty years ago, journalist Edward R. Murrow regularly presented essays from people in all walks of life, including some well-known Americans like Helen Keller, Jackie Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harry S Truman, on the guiding principles they lived by. Check out a few of thos old essays, some new ones by famous and "ordinary" people, and contribute one of your own at This I Believe

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My second romance novel is set in Dublin, Ohio. My husband and I lived there years ago, so I'm very familiar with the city, but I still had to do some research for the book. Here's something I loved but had to leave on the cutting room floor: an outdoor sculpture consisting of 109 concrete ears of corn, each six feet tall. Yes, corn. Take a look at Field of Corn with Osage Orange Trees and then let me know if you were able to view the photo with a straight face.

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Does pondering quantum theory make your heart beat a little faster? Do you think somebody should be looking just a little bit harder for all that missing Dark Matter in the Universe? Are you eager to read all about the world's fastest transistor? Here's a one-stop website that will satisfy your inner science geek: NewScientist.com.

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I haven't mentioned The Lit Blog Co-op until now because 1,732 other blogs* have already done so. But heck, I've gotta mention it. It's wonderful. All the best lit bloggers are contributing posts to the LBC which, according to its blurb, is "uniting the leading literary weblogs for the purpose of drawing attention to the best contemporary fiction, authors and presses that are struggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace." Check it out.


*No, don't go running to Technorati.com to look it up. I might have exaggerated a little.