The Flare-Up has Begun

Thursday, April 22, 2010 was a historic day. It marked the first Flare-Up, held at the Grand Traverse Pie Company in East Lansing, Michigan, and, in an appropriate Earth Day choice, focused on Michigan State University's Green Graduation.

So, what the heck is a Flare-Up and why does it matter?

For those of you familiar with today's technology environment we say "Flare-Up: not quite an IGNITE! but it Might."  We had talked about the possibility of having an Ignite with a focus on the University and its community. We realized that too many good things are going on within that environment that people just don't get a chance to learn about. We needed a vehicle for enabling that. Ignite! seemed like a good option. The only problem was none of us involved in deciding that Ignite was a good idea had the time to make it happen. We decided something on a smaller scale would be better.

So we created "Flare-Up: not quite an IGNITE! but it might."  A Flare-up is promoted on Twitter. It is held somewhere where a group can gather informally and where participants can purchase coffee, soda, and other drinks and morning food (The first one was held at the Grand Traverse Pie Company in East Lansing, Michigan, a place where we have been meeting informally for PIE-Ups for quite a while.) A person we want to learn from is invited to present.  They have five minutes and can bring one prop. Questions and discussion after the presentation can go where it leads.

Our other goal is to make all the presentations available on YouTube. Finding an available name resulted in our channel being called "pieupflareup" channel. Here is our first video.  We have a bit to learn about videography - like don't put your presenter in the sunlight - but you get the idea of where we are going. Jennifer Battle, from the MSU Office of Sustainability, talked about the Green Graduation. Her prop was the green gown and cap made out of recycled pop bottles. Sweet! You'll see that Dr. Lou Anna Simon, president of MSU and her husband even dropped in to see what was going on. How cool is that!

I guess we felt good enough about it that we plan to keep going. We believe that ideas sometimes creep out of the most unexpected cracks and can propel new ideas and new directions. So we'll keep searching the cracks and finding new things to learn more about. When we do we'll send out the Tweets and hold another Flare-Up. Because the ideas we find are not quite IGNITES! but they might!

Flare-Up...not quite an IGNITE! but it might

A "Flare-up" is:

• Announced by Twitter and e-mail
• Located in an existing venue with drinks and tables
• One presenter to talk about something interesting going on in the community
• The presenter can bring one prop and will introduce the topic in 5 - 10 minutes. The rest will be Q&A and discussion.
• Presentation will be taped and posted 

The first "Flare-up" will be at @GTPie (Grand Traverse Pie Company, Hagadorn and Grand River, East Lansing) at 8am on Thursday, April 22, 2010.

The presenter will be Jennifer Battle, Asst. Director, Campus Sustainability, talking about Michigan State Universities "Green Commencement".

My Mother Had a Mangle

Back in the mid-50's my dad inherited a house from our old maid Aunt Mary. It was a beautiful house as I remember it, but that's not the story. In the laundry room there was a machine that would arouse the curiosity of any ten year old boy...a mangle. I had never seen one before. My mother, on the other hand, had supported herself through college by being line-in housekeeper for a "well-off" family and they had one. There was a sparkle in her eye when she realized that she was now a proud owner. Let me set the scene for those of you who are a bit younger.

Back then, if you can believe it, following wash day there was ironing day. No one had thought of permanent press yet or gentle cycles in washing machines. Dryers were just arriving on the household scene and clotheslines were much more common. The clothes came out of the laundry very wrinkled and the solution was...they had to be ironed. Now, I'm guessing you're thinking about the shirts and shorts and pants, ah ha, but what about the sheets. Yes, the height of luxury was ironed sheets. Smooth, sometimes starched, and ready to slither into.

Well you can imagine how long it took to iron a sheet with an iron. Not to mention that, in our house, there were five beds. That meant ten sheets...an almost exasperating job. Unless...you had a mangle.

A mangle is a set of motorized rollers one of which is heated like an iron. You feed the wrinkled item in one side and it comes out the other side smooth. Ten sheets? You could knock that off in a couple hours. It was a miracle. It left enough time in the day to watch "In Search of Tomorrow."

I remember great times "helping" my mom mangle the sheets. Of course I couldn't do it myself because it might crush my arm if it got caught. (Safety is a topic for another day.) I think my two year older sister might have operated it before she left home but why would my mom want to give up running it? It was here touch of luxury.

For most young moms today this would have been the days of their great-grandma. It's a forgotten time, a different time. Ask you grandma about it. Ask her about all the things that made up the work of a mom back then. You'll be amazed. You'll also want to give her an extra hug.