RenoVous

 This restaurant has been in business since 1956.  My grandparents ate here, my parents - I met my husband here almost 20 years ago. It was bought out in May, by Jacobs Entertainment, who has been buying up much of old 4th Street.  Originally they didn't intend to keep the restaurant, but then decided they would, ultimately killing a legacy. Tomorrow a brand new menu debuts, having removed everything that the customer base has come to expect.  It's been comfort food, reliable soups, made from scratch recipes - which they've been failing on up to this point anyway.  What once was the best sausage gravy in town.... It's just a bummer to watch something you love be torn apart bit by bit.  It would have been better if they had just demolished it for the property they're really after.  Maybe build their own new restaurant instead of dragging down a historic local. RIP.

  Cynthia Erivo Marisa Tomei Alicia Vikander Demi Moore Elle Fanning Lily-Rose Depp Regina King Monica Barbaro Priyanka Chopra Saoirse Ronan

  Have you ever noticed a green slime blob on your walkway or lawn after it rains? It's called nostoc, or troll's butter, and is a colony of cyanobacteria.  They can live in the water or on land, from the tropics to the poles, and they often form a symbiotic relationship with nearby plants. They can photosynthesize, fix nitrogen, withstand being frozen and thawed multiple times, and absorb UV radiation. They can also survive drying out, known as dessication.  It will turn a dark brown color, blending in with soil, so when it gets rehydrated it seems to appear out of nowhere. If this looks disgusting to you, don't have any fat choy, a delicacy of Chinese cuisine, often enjoyed for the Lunar New Year.  It actually looks worse cooked.

  Over the weekend, Hubby and I took our nieces to the planetarium.  Neither one of us had been since we were kids on a field trip.  This is something we need to do more! The movie we caught wasn't entirely space related, but of course we went over the night sky first.  With the dome theater, anything is cool. We learned that the dome is getting a full LED upgrade, and will be the first on a college campus.  Not only does this mean better movie quality, but it will also provide a new way for students to learn with astronomy simulations and immersive software. This is through a partnership with Cosm, a global technology company, and a donation from the George W. Gillemot Foundation to establish an Aerospace Engineering Department at UNR's College of Engineering. Built in 1963, the Fleischmann Planetarium was the first in the country to feature a 360 degree projector.  It was built by local architect, Raymond Hellmann, and is protected on the National Registe...

 TIME has only been celebrating Athlete of the Year since 2019, but Caitlin Clark is the first WNBA player to earn the honor. She is the reigning Rookie of the Year, scoring 769 points over the season, which is a rookie record.  She also had 337 assists, 122 three-pointers, both records, and 2 triple-doubles, the first by a rookie in WNBA history. She led the Indiana Fever to their first playoff appearance since 2016, and the team played the most watched WNBA games ever.  The entire WNBA saw an all-time record of 54 million unique viewers across all its national broadcasting platforms. When asked to define her year in one word, Clark chose "historic." The article mentions Serena Williams and Simone Biles, how it's one thing to rally around star athletes during global spectacles, but quite another to turn a regular season of a league long neglected into appointment viewing.

 The Christmas Market in Zagreb, Croatia has been voted the best in Europe. Above, Zrinjevac Park. There's a ski hill nearby, as well as an ice rink at King Tomislav Square. The Gric Tunnel is transformed. The seasonal treats are highly regarded, such as sarma - boiled or brined cabbage leaves stuffed with a combination of beef and pork, rice and assorted spices. Fritule - little balls of dough laced with brandy, flash fried, and dusted with powdered sugar. Rakija - Croatia's national drink, a clear spirit made from distilled fruits and herbs, sweetened with sugar or honey.  Plum is the most popular flavor. The heart of the event is in Ban Jelacic Square, where you can shop for handmade gifts and listen to live performances around the Grand Christmas Tree. Ante Gelo is one of the artists set to perform, along with his band. Here's a taste.

  Michelle Yeoh Zoe Kravitz Cynthia Erivo Nicola Coughlan Mindy Kaling Selena Gomez Ryan Destiny Emma Corrin Ali Larter Zendaya

  This is Devil's Hole in Death Valley National Park. These waters are home to an endangered pupfish, and yesterday's earthquake caused a disturbance. The National Park Service reports that a shelf was broken by waves that reached 24 inches high.  NPS biologist, Kevin Wilson, says a lot of pupfish food "just sank deeper into the cave, most likely too deep for the fish to get."  There were likely pupfish eggs that were destroyed as well. But it's not all bad news.  "It cleaned off any decaying organic matter that could otherwise cause pockets of low oxygen," so this type of reset can be good for the fish. Isolation over the course of thousands of years has led to these fish being, what is believed to be, one of the most inbred invertebrates on Earth.

  We returned to the warm springs during a bit of a pogonip. Felt so nice. Our Bowie did really well for his camp trip!

W.H.R. Rivers, an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist. On this day in 1917, he released his report on the treatment of World War I soldiers, The Repression of War Experience. Earlier in the year, medical officer Charles Meyer coined the term "shell shock," to describe physical damage done to soldiers on the front lines during exposure to heavy bombardment.  Symptoms included debilitating anxiety, persistent nightmares, and afflictions such as diarrhea and loss of sight. It became clear to Rivers that these symptoms were appearing in soldiers who had never been directly under bombardment, and that these were the psychological effects produced by the experience of combat. He worked at the Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, and the Royal School of Medicine.  His duty, per the British Army, was to get the men fit and ready to return to battle, but only 1/5 would ever resume military duty.  Wilfred Owen was among his patients, and I have a p...

 I've had a thing for Sinatra for a while, and it's not a love I inherited from my dad, but he did buy this book for me.  I forgot about it for a while, pulled it off a different bookshelf for our camping trip, and now I'm all in. It's a lot, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through.  A lot of things I didn't know, a lot of early songs I had missed.  Like his time with Tommy Dorsey. His first number one hit from 1940.  By 1942, he was a solo star. A lot of the commentary says Frank's talent was in his phrasing - believing every single word he sang, and being very clear with those words.  He claimed the microphone was his instrument more than his voice, because he could speak to you, and that's why all the girls felt he was singing to them. Pretty sure I would have been a Bobby Soxer.

  Jodie Turner-Smith Maren Morris Katherine Waterston Aja Naomi King Yara Shahidi Vanessa Williams Patricia Arquette Sharon Stone Kate Moss x Zara