What’s better than a thrift store?

100 percent off stores, of course.
In Baltimore, Portland, San Francisco, and other cities scattered across the United States and Europe, free stores are a practical protest of consumer culture.
The concept is simple: People bring in good-quality items they no longer want or need (toasters, air mattresses, artwork, clothing); and people who want or need those items take them home, free of charge, explains Victoria Kreha in Green American.
Bonnie Nordvedt, administrator of the Baltimore Free Store says, “The purpose of a free store is for everyone to rethink their shopping habits, spending habits, and general addiction to ‘newer-bigger-better.’ “
Free is better
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31 Day Blog Challenge, #7
PET HATES
Hypocrisy, deliberate stupidity and unwillingness to learn when that thing that is to be learned doesn’t mesh with the ideas you already have.
The rampant misuse of the apostrophe in written English; you have no idea how many menus I have itched to take a red pen to.
Cruelty
The impersonal bottom-line-driven American healthcare (I grew up in a world where doctors made house calls).
Atonal jazz “jam sessions” which give me headaches trying to tease out a melody that just isn’t there — it’s just a cacophony of sax and bass.
That thing called “modern art” which too often is something that’s just out to create outrage or head-scratching puzzlement…
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12 Letters That Didn’t Make the Alphabet
The alphabet, Mental Floss notes,  “is one of the first things you’re taught in school. But did you know that they’re not teaching you all of the alphabet? There are quite a few letters we tossed aside as our language grew, and you probably never even knew they existed.”
Alphabet additions
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Weird wonderful words
Carmel Lobello offers us 18 uncommon or obsolete words that “we think may have died early. We found them in two places: a book called ‘The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten’ by Jeffrey Kacirk, and on a blog called Obsolete Word of The Day that’s been out of service since 2010.”
Words such as Snoutfair, Wonder-wench
18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style
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11 Amazing Book-Song Pairings
“When you love books and music pretty much equally and for many of the same reasons,” Jeannette says at BookRiot, “it’s inevitable that the two will tie themselves together in your head, often subconsciously. I know this happens to me a lot.
“Sometimes it’s obvious: Kate Bush’s “The Sensual World,” for instance, is based on Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses, so that connection is pre-made.
“Sometimes it happens song first, sometimes book. It usually works basically like word association, so some of these may only make sense to me. These are the favorites that popped into my head when I sat down to start writing.”
Book-song pairs
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