While Kirtly unpacked her belongings, Mitchell plugged in her electric kettle to brew a celebratory cup of tea in her ol

When I was first starting to formally study design in the late 80s, I came across a book at the MIT Press bookstore with the weighty title, “Theory and Design in the First Machine Age,” written by the architectural critic Reyner Banham.,It had a handwritten yellow discount sticker atop an austerely designed black cover with big white type and orange-red horizontal lines. Its original publication date of 1960 partially explained why the book cover looked out of fashion and yet it still stood out in a way that spoke to me. The price definitely worked for me too.,If you find yourself nodding to these things, don’t panic. Half the battle, and also half the fun of relationships, is getting to know yourself within one. If you feel insecure, the first step is to notice what’s going on. The second is to know you can turn it around.,“I was able to get my hands on the house deed records that go back many generations,” she later wrote in a memoir, Spirits of the Cage. “I discovered that the house has changed hands on average every three-and-a-half years since it was built, with the exception of only two cases. One example being a man who purchased the property for £150 and sold it only a matter of weeks later, for just £100.” The pattern revealed in that document would have deterred many buyers, but even if it had arrived earlier, Mitchell had been struck by a love-blindness often experienced by homebuyers.,“Len is a friend who I know very well. We get along great together, and I welcome him to the White Sox organization,” Jackson said. “With my background of broadcasting more than 20 years for the White Sox organization and Len’s Chicago experience and baseball background, I hope White Sox fans share our excitement about covering an up-and-coming Sox team on a nightly basis. I miss former partner Ed Farmer every single day, really enjoyed last season with Andy Masur and am appreciative of how each helped seamlessly form a tandem. Now, I am looking forward to building a long-term bond with Len, Sox fans and all of our listeners.”,When I buy potatoes — I always buy from the closest producer to me I can find. Why would I buy potatoes from another country when I can buy 10 pounds from a local producer 30 minutes away?,The fastest way to find $5,000 this year? Take a good, hard look at what you’ve spent on groceries these past three months. Go through your bank or credit card statements. Yes, I realize we’re in a hard year. But you’re still going to see areas that you can cut back or make different choices.,The kind of machines that Banham refers to are mechanical, steam-powered ones that disrupted how civilization works. The steam engine of the 1700s was the technological catalyst for “the first industrial revolution” because it radically altered what a business could accomplish. Before the steam-powered locomotive, the only alternative to long-distance transportation was horses. Horses need to take regular rests, eat, and sleep. Machines don’t need to take breaks, you can pour fuel into them while they’re running, and they can operate continuously.,“Len is a friend who I know very well. We get along great together, and I welcome him to the White Sox organization,” Jackson said. “With my background of broadcasting more than 20 years for the White Sox organization and Len’s Chicago experience and baseball background, I hope White Sox fans share our excitement about covering an up-and-coming Sox team on a nightly basis. I miss former partner Ed Farmer every single day, really enjoyed last season with Andy Masur and am appreciative of how each helped seamlessly form a tandem. Now, I am looking forward to building a long-term bond with Len, Sox fans and all of our listeners.”,If you can’t find what you’re looking for? THEN expand to your next state or province, and then finally the country nearest yours. Sure, butter from Ireland is a lovely indulgence, but so is the butter from your local dairy producer, at half the price.,Support local farmers if you can. I buy butter from a local Hutterite colony for $3.00 a pound and it is out-of-this-world-good. We purchase 10 pounds and stash them in the freezer (yes — another plug for buying a freezer!),Mitchell showed Kirtly around their new home. Downstairs, the former prison room and ominous wooden cage door were considered original. In the fireplace, Mitchell found an iron chain with a large hook that appeared to be a relic from the building’s prison days. During a spring cleaning, Mitchell sifted through decades of creepy old photographs and documents left behind by tenants.,My first read didn’t get me anywhere because the book was written in design-ese. At the time I spoke fluent engineer-ese, which made it easier for me to read equations, principles, and anything involving computation. But the book stayed with me throughout the years, and eventually by the fourth read I found myself chuckling at Banham’s droll yet witty prose. I guess that was proof that by then I’d become fluent in design-ese too. And yet the title’s reference to “the first machine age” signaled to me that the ability to speak engineer-ese was still highly relevant.,Mitchell found another unsettling document among some papers in the kitchen. “It was a death certificate of the guy that hung himself there, six months before,” she told me. “I remember thinking, what a month to kill yourself, you know, near Halloween.”,When fruit and vegetables are in season and much more affordable — buy lots, eat loads of it fresh and then preserve, dry, or freeze the rest. It is one of the best ways to eat the healthiest produce year-round at the lowest price. And if you grow your own produce, or if you’re an urban forager — food is almost free.