Thank goodness for the “save” feature on my news feed. I got up this morning and thought, It’s Mom’s birthday. She’s 92. That’s the one piece of good news I have to share on this grey, grey Monday.
Whoops! I remembered that I saved some good news, and I recapped my Sunday reading and found additional stories I want to share.
On a local level: 92 year old fashion designer
She could be my mom, cuz Mom is super creative and loves to sew.
Dyllis Braithwaite started creating wearable art forty years ago. She’s having a show, “Dyllis Braithwaite – We Love What You’re Wearing!” in St. Charles Illinois on March 21st.
She started her career as a home economics teacher. She managed a fabric store for a year before she bought the business. Her shop became known as the go-to place for fabric.
Dyllis wrote two books about her wearable art. “Oh! I Love What You’re Wearing” Volumes I and II.
Designer Andrea Reynders, professor emeritus at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said,
“Dylllis.. has style.. It was evident the moment I met her in her marvelous shop..Walking into the wealth of silk and wool, linen and cotton was like a dream to me…She is a brilliant example of individuality…”
Northwest Herald
On a microscopic level: Beer can be more than a good time.
What does beer and sewers have in common? Besides the obvious, I mean.
Breweries use a lot of barley and the microbes in municipal sewer treatment systems like spent barley. Well, to be correct, sewer treatment systems are now called water reclamation systems. Even sewer needs a politically correct image-lift.
Because it’s rich in yeast, hops and sugar, brewery waste can throw off the microbes that wastewater plants rely on to remove nitrogen and phosphorus. The two nutrients can cause algae blooms in rivers and kill off fish.
NPR
Bozeman, Montana found a way to make the waste work for the city. Coralyn Revis, an engineering consultant for the city, found a way to use the local brewery’s spent barley to keep the microbes happy and healthy.
The system gets rid of the spent barley AND it might save the city up to $1 million in upgrades.
Bozeman got the idea from a small town near the Canadian border, Havre, Montana. Havre received Honorable Mentions for the EPA’s PISCES Award, (Performance and Innovation in the SRF Creating Environmental Success.) for their efforts.
Don’t you love the name of the award? PISCES, twin fish, for an award to help prevent river pollution. I wonder how long it took to think up that acronym.
Several more municipalities are exploring the idea of partnering with breweries for water reclamation success. To read or listen to NPR’s piece, click here.
On a personal level: Beauty in the eye of the beholder
You’ve probably seen the Dove commercials with a variety of women, all beautiful and all very different in size, skin tone, hair texture, etc. National Geographic’s Robin Givhan explains:
We have become more accepting because people have demanded it, protested for it, and used the bully pulpit of social media to shame beauty’s gatekeepers into opening the doors wider.
National Geographic
Hop on over to the National Geographic web site and see the beautiful women photographed by HANNAH REYES MORALES.
Even Mattel recognizes beautiful diversity:
Now if only they made a granny Barbie.
Well, it’s Tuesday morning. Maybe not too late to recognize some good news for the week. As I finished up these three summaries, I noticed another bit of good news. Each summary highlights women. Yay!