About me, Contact me, FAQs

About Me

My name is Mary Purpari, and since I have a little time, I'd like to tell you a few things about me. Then, I would like to answer a few FAQs that have shown up in comments (many of which, I assume, are written by the same person) and which need to be responded to. I was born in Southern California, a number of years before it became known as SoCal, and lived in the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa area before it became known as the OC. Some of my adventures as a child (slightly downplayed) are described in the book I wrote and published in 2009, Old McDonald Had a Funny Farm (paperback version) and in 2013 (Kindle version). A follow-up is in the makings.

I come from a very large family; the number of family members is somewhat vague, because we keep adding new people to it as we deem desirable, but the actual number of children is, I believe, eleven. Or something like that, anyway.

I attended Corona del Mar High School from September 1966-June 1970, where I played trumpet in the Symphonic Band and Marching Band, sang in the Concert Choir and was also a member of the CdM charter of Modern Music Masters (MMM). I also ran on the track team; played center field on the girl's softball team and was one of the founding players of the Volleyball for Lunch Bunch.

After high school, I went on to Orange Coast College where I earned an A.A. in Liberal Arts, with an emphasis in music and math, as well as creative writing. Several years later, after working for a few years as a proof-reader at Deseret Press, I attended the University of Utah with a major in Bio-chemistry.

Following this, I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Northern Italy. After returning home I worked to earn enough money to return to Italy, where I married and lived for an additional 29 years. Our union gave us a beautiful daughter, who is also the object of several of my posts. I lived in Bologna (where my daughter was born) and in Mistretta, on the island of Sicily.

I now live in Brooklyn, New York where I am fairly happy. The death of my dearest friend, Russ Kelly, and the distance between my daughter and I, are the only real blocks to complete happiness. I enjoy translating, when the chance arises, from Italian and Spanish to English and from English to Italian. I also create jewelry; there will shortly be a page dedicated to photos of my creations. I also love reading, crocheting and quilting, but most of all, I enjoy writing. I hope you will enjoy reading my writings, also.

Contact me:

A number of people have requested information regarding how to contact me. I can be found on Facebook under the name Mary McDowell Purpari. I don't have a Twitter account, nor am I planning on getting one anytime soon. I prefer, if you wish to get into contact with me, that you send me a private message on Facebook, rather than give out my e-mail address. I'm sure you will understand.

FAQs from comments:

As I mentioned, there have been a number of interesting questions. They have been worded differently by different people, although many of them are worded so exactly alike that I believe they were probably written by the same people. Also, because of this, many worthwhile comments are not directly published anymore; the volume of identical comments on one article has brought the comment section to a close except for in my email.

I really like your blog's theme. Did you create it yourself, or was it done by a specialist?

I did it myself. The photo is not actually available anywhere else on the web, since I took it myself in the woods outside of Mistretta. I chose this particular scene, because those woods were my favorite place to go when I had something serious to think about, and I think the peaceful quality induces reflections. I would really prefer that no one use this photo. I am not a web designer, however, and can't design a page or blog for anyone else. I am a writer, a translator and make jewelry.

Do you think that some of the people who comment here are brain dead?

No, I don't. I think some people who ask the same question over and over again are annoying, though. I assume that the people who comment in imperfect English come from non-English speaking countries, and that their use of their own language is far superior to that of others who don't speak their language. I do consider, however, those who use my comment section to simply promote their own sites without commenting about my articles as nothing other than spammers. I would request that, if you are in the habit of doing this latter, that you cease doing so, especially if you are posting adult material; my blog is supposed to be child-friendly, and many of the spam comments are anything but... 

May I use material from your blog in my own blog? 

I will permit the use of brief quotations, but please contact me beforehand as mentioned above. All quotes must be accompanied by a link leading to the original article, as well as included in the bibliography. Any use of poems written by Russell Kelly are copyrighted by myself and MAY NOT BE USED  in other online articles or blogs. Copying short stories or excerpts is also not allowed without specific permission. I thank you in advance for your appreciation and understanding on this subject. Respecting copyright laws is a sign of civility.

What platform are you using?

I'm using Google blogspot. For the most part, I find very comfortable to use, although, as some people have pointed out, there are a few issues if you are not using Google Chrome. However, for the most part, I find that it fits very nicely into my style. It allows you to do many things and gives you a wide variety of templates for setting up your blog. Another couple of pluses are that it's free and accepts AdSense.

Do you have a Donate Button?

No, there is no donate button. However, I do have AdSense, and by clicking on those ads, you can contribute to the maintenance of this site. and, you never know--you might find something that actually interests you. A little click'll do it, and it costs you nothing unless you find you really are interested in the offered product.

I would like to subscribe. How can I do that?

I hate to say it, but that is a really good question and I wish I knew the answer. For some reason, it only allows people to become followers by using Google +. All I can suggest is to either join Google+ or to sign up for the RSS feed. 

Don't you think you could find a catchier title than"M" is for Museum of Natural History?

I would like to mention at this point that it's possible (probable) that I could find a catchier title than this, or for any of the other titles starting out with a letter between quotes; however, there is a specific reason that these particular articles have this type of title. If you look closely, you will probably notice that they were all written during the month of April in various years. This is because April is the month when many bloggers participate in the month-long A-Z Challenge where we write an article everyday in alphabetical order, with Sunday as a day off. It's a real challenge, but it is definitely well worth it, and maybe NEXT year I will be able to successfully complete it.

Variations of "Why don't you put some pictures?" or "You seem to rely mainly on photographs and videos."

I really don't know what to say, here, except that I try to put in photos where they fit in. Every article has at least one photograph or video, with the exception of Obituary for Russell John Kelly; I tried, but was unable to post a photograph.

There are a lot of spelling errors.

I would like to ask my own question here: If you find a specific spelling error, could you please point it out to me? I can't find any, but it has been mentioned several times that there are so many spelling errors it bothers the reader. I sincerely apologize, but the only words I see that might possibly be considered misspelled would be some words whose spelling changes from American English to British English., or possibly scientific or legal terms written in Latin.

I'm sure there are other questions, and they will be dealt with in the future. Thank you for your comments and questions.

Mary Purpari