HodgePodge Vol. 82

1. Summer officially rolls in the HodgePodge this week, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere anyway.  What song says Summer 2012 to you?
I can peg the summer of 1981 with Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." The summer of 1991 with Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway." The summer of 2001 with the White Stripes' "We're Going to Be Friends." The Summer of 2012 with the Maccabees' "Feel to Follow."

2. What is your quintessential summer food?
Every summer I tend to lean toward a specific farm fresh produce.  Last summer it was watermelon with daily tweets on hip and trendy recipes.  This year I was leaning toward mango, but finding in the few days leading up to the true start to summer that I'm really hooked on the idea of arugula, a fresh bitter green. (I'm broadening my palate of arugula recipes, tweet yours to me!)



3. Did you know the rest areas on the NJ turnpike are named after people who lived or worked in NJ? Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Molly Pitcher, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison, Grover Clevland just to name a few.  Of those listed, who would you have most like to have known and why?
That's easy, Walt Whitman the father of free verse. Song of Myself one of my favorite collections.

4. At what age did you move out of your parents house and what prompted the move?
Simply said, high school graduation provided the obvious exit ,but better put as college bound endeavors required a change of scenery to succeed.

5. What's more satisfying to you saving time or saving money?

Smiling at you!

Saving time is the likely answer given my habit for organizing and list making.  Though there's cause to say saving money became a far more diligent virtue when the economy slowed to a snails pace.

6. Name something you think brings out the good in people.

 A smile.  People in general like to smile and sometimes they just need a smile to invoke their inner radiance.

7. Will you being taking a vacation or a staycation this summer?  If so, where will you go? If a staycation is on the calendar have you made any special plans to fill the time?
Staycation. Living in the South provides ample opportunity throughout the year to feel like you're on vacation; however, we find friends and family more likely, due to school recess, summer work breaks, to take advantage of their schedules to visit here.  Travel for our household tends to transpire in the nonsummer months.

8. Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Title IX.  That's what's going on in Washington this week.  40 influential women will be recognized on the anniversary of a federal law that requires equal access to academic and extracurricular activities for women and men.  I agree with this article, there's still a great deal more work to be done.

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."