Every once in a while, some one comes up with some thing that compels users to immediately tell every person they know about it. This is one of those times.

And every time forever and ever when you slice effortlessly through hard-as-a-rock (ideal temp is 5° to 10°) Vanilla ice cream (top flavor in US, says International Dairy Foods), you’ll thank me.

National Ice Cream Day is Sunday, July 15 this year. Plenty of time for you to click to the store. The Twister Scoop is at Amazon as well as other stores and E-bay.

Vanilla not your jam? The rest of the top five: Chocolate, Cookies N’ Cream, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Today’s 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death is a good time to remind yourself just why he’s an America’s Super Hero.

Watch King in the Wilderness, (HBO). After civil rights victories, King begins to champion against poverty, militarism and racism.  His growing resolve unleashes enormous wrath from under every rock. That he survives — to be assassinated is head-shaking.

Catch the Martin Luther King episode tonight (or later online) on the I AM series on Paramount Network . The documentary series is an inside look at the lives of extraordinary individuals, told by the people who knew them best.

Leave a tribute to him on the Nobel Prize web site. While you’re there, read his bio and listen to the acceptance speech he  gave in Oslo. Factoid: He is the youngest male to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. (Photo from History Channel; King smiles to learn he has won the Nobel Prize.)

Do not miss today’s Google Doodle; it’s an audio and visual performance of Angelou’s poem, I Shall Rise.  The 50th anniversary of Dr King’s death also happens to be what would have been Maya Angelou’s 90th birthday and her poem serves them both.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like life, I’ll rise.

Here is Sam Houston, a former resident of the Pet Shelter in Brownsville, Texas where he learned to be a warrior and ardent quilter. He prefers kibbles to bits, likes sage green and the song, Three Blind Mice.

Some mags feature interesting-looking folk announcing things she or he cannot live without. Among the cherished items are Stillhouse Whiskey, a Le Creuset Dutch oven and Gucci velvet evening slippers with snakes.

Although I wouldn’t go so far to say, I cannot live without a certain pan, a slipper or sheets, there are some things that would make my Awfully Sorry to Give You Up List.

Leave it to the Beavers  from Nature, a PBS tv series (36 seasons) produced by THIRTEEN and WNET NY Public Media.  Stream this one and other full episodes on Nature Online.  Be forewarned, little Timber Beaver will steal your heart.

Room temperature ruby red grapefruit from the Rio Grande Valley in SW Texas. It makes most fruits hang their heads. 

The Dictionary app. Load this FREE app and never be at a loss for words. It comes with a dictionary, thesaurus and Everything Pass Z, a department whose staff dish on all things wordy.

The Canadian ice cream store, Sweet Jesus! Not for the product but for their pluck in not flinching when beset by critics for choosing its name. Get a grip, if Rocky Road isn’t proof of the divine, what in heaven’s sake is?

Bellavitano Balsamic Cheese is:  (here goes)  rich, nutty, fruity and bathed sparingly in a wash of Modena vinegar leaving a slightly sweet/tangy  burnished coating that clings to the inside of the mouth and dances on the tongue. Best part is you can buy it at Costco and be the star of your next potluck.

Full disclosure. I did rush right out and buy Stillhouse Whiskey, infused with the flavor of apple crisp. It’s making itself at home on the cocktail cart.

Got your New Year’s greeting tweet today. Thoughtful of you. One thing I can count on with you, Donald, you know how to address a nation. The shout-out to your many enemies shows refreshing candor. But, how come you think your opponents lost so badly? And, oh — another thing you have wrong. No one I know is going gently into that good night. Love backatcha!

It’s time to suit up.

He’s also an American Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner, essayist, and teacher; he lives in Garland, a small town near Lincoln, Nebraska. He’s published nearly a dozen books of poetry since 1969. 

Not only does he see details hidden right in front of you, he arranges them in the most wondrous way. His poems are quiet moments full of grace and understanding of life way outside of the fast lane. Kooser introduces you to people you want to know and places you want to visit and hang out for a while.

Above all, he shows you how to slow down and open your eyes. Here is a favorite, a one line poem, called Splitting an Order, from his 2014 collection with the same name.

I like to watch an old man cutting a sandwich in half,
maybe an ordinary cold roast beef on whole wheat bread,
no pickles or onion, keeping his shaky hands steady
by placing his forearms firm on the edge of the table
and using both hands, the left to hold the sandwich in place,
and the right to cut it surely, corner to corner,
observing his progress through glasses that moments before
he wiped with his napkin, and then to see him lift half
onto the extra plate that he had asked the server to bring,
and then to wait, offering the plate to his wife
while she slowly unrolls her napkin and places her spoon,
her knife and her fork in their proper places,
then smoothes the starched white napkin over her knees
and meets his eyes and holds out both old hands to him

Gotch your back. 

My 2014 VW beetle is key-less. Instead of an ordinary car key, I have a gadget with lock and unlock buttons. Instead of turning the ignition with a key, I step on the break pedal and push a start button. It isn’t a must-have feature for me but I liked the idea.

Once when I was putting wine bottles in the recycling dumpster, I locked my key in the trunk. But I was able to get in and drive home since my key-less-key said remotely, “It’s ok! I’m right here in the trunk.” 

(At home, I flipped the back seats face down and was able to rescue my key.)

Then one day, I got out of the car, locked it — with my phone sitting on the front seat. I grabbed the door handle, and surprisingly, the door wasn’t locked. I pushed the lock button on the key gadget a couple of times but each time I tried the handle, it opened.

Oh man, I thought, this will be a pricey repair. From then on I stopped using the defective buttons to lock the car. Then one day, I accidentally slammed the trunk lid with my key and purse inside.  I thought no big deal, the car isn’t locked  and the key is within range to start it; I’ll drive home like before.

I tried the car door and it WAS locked. Long story short — I walked over a mile and 1/2 to my house wearing hardly sturdy sandals in 90 degree heat.

Key-less entry is in a middle chapter in the manual. I found out that when key-less-key is within a foot of the car, I lock and unlock the doors and the trunk just by the laying on of my hands. My touch activates the remote sensors which shout out, “Key-less-key is in the house. Action approved. Commence.”

I am queen of the universe.