The Storyteller | Mary Vee

Lindt Coffee Shop Paris, Photo by Mary Vee Writers learn early on the importance of writing about what you know. This doesn't necessarily mean we are experts in the topic we include. But we have dabbled in or research a plethora of resources which enable us to seamlessly take a reader to the location, or communicate the experience. Today, my main character sits in a coffee shop located on a narrow, windy Paris street a few days before Christmas.  During the late spring, summer, and fall seasons, tables and chairs clutter the sidewalk outside this shop. It's considered prime seating. Ambiance worth every penny because in the distance, the tip of the Eiffel reaches above the buildings. Not on this day, though.  Inside the coffee shop, locals take chairs from other tables and huddle together. They reach past their knees for their cup of latte, take a slug, and put the cup back. The topic of conversation is undefined, much like oil and water, swirling from one i...

Photo by Mary Vee Due to modern technology, blind students are using Braille less. Audible advances enable these individuals to hear stories and informative text easily.  Educators are finding that these students have become deficient in spelling, composition, and are limited to only that which is produced audibly.  Here is some amazing facts about Braille. The inventor of Braille, a fifteen-year-old boy names Louis Braille, took his idea from a night code communication used by the French military. The code enabled leaders in combat to read messages at night without a light.  At age three, Braille suffered an accident when playing with an awl in his father's workspace. The incident blinded him in one eye that became infected and spread to his other eye, leaving him totally blind. Louis Braille's was smart. He earned scholarships to attend the Royal Institute for the blind.   In those days blind students read by moving their fingertips across raised let...

Photo Courtesy: pixabay.com Have you heard the latest about a phenomenal prototype on its way to the market? Gloves for the deaf to communicate with the listening population. The gloves have sensors that translate hand and finger signs into audible language! I have friends and acquaintances who can sign with the deaf. I also have deaf friends who can read lips. These individuals can understand me, but I am not able to understand them because I cannot sign.  The June 9, 2019 news reporting Roy Allela's award-winning gloves that enable the deaf to audibly communicate with the hearing is spreading across cyberspace. The invention won him the grand prize for the Hardware Trailblazer award at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and second runner-up award at the Royal Academy of Engineering Leaders of Innovation Fellowship in London. What gave Allela the idea? He has a niece who was born deaf. The niece learned sign language, however,...

A 1930's radio program started the Green Super Hero craze in 1930.  The Green Hornet  matched wits with the underworld, ridding the world of criminals and racketeers. A 2011 movie made by Universal Studios updated the story with ridding the world of meth labs. In 1940 DC Comics created the Green Lantern . He wears a ring that gives him the power to create anything. His power is limited by the ring which must be charged by a green lantern. The power originates from another world where fellow superheroes meet up to fight the ultimate villains. A remake was made in 2011. In 1941 Marvel Comics created the Green Arrow . The answer to Batman. The Green Arrow's power is martial arts and archery. Netflix has made a TV series called  The Green Arrow that is currently running. Photo credit: AP as shown on the NPR website See link below But none of these superheroes can hold a candle to the Green Blob, sighted by the National Weather Service this week on Jun...

Photo Courtesy: Pixabay.com This week a thread on Facebook received a lot of attention. The comment section basically drove it viral. The issue was eating disorders of a strange kind. Some parents have taken the goals for good eating and exercise for children as outlined by Michelle Obama a few years ago to the extreme by placing children on adult level diets. Restricting the daily caloric intake for a child to 600 in one case.  Another individual's comment stated a focus on their weight led to missing indicators for a terminal disease. When convincing information is presented, it is natural to swing the pendulum. Being overweight is not healthy. We want our family and ourselves to be healthy. However, not all diets are for all people. A child grows in spurts. At times the child may appear overweight. One month later, a growth spurt will show the child's body prepared for the event. Growth does not happen on a schedule. It sure would be nice if it did, though,...