Clump #2:  Clear and clean warm weather duvet.

It all started when the woman at the local dry cleaning store refused to clean our feather duvet, saying “I don’t clean anything with feathers.”  This, from the indomitable lady who is usually up for any cleaning challenge.  If she wouldn’t, who was I to attempt it?  The darn thing languished in laundry purgatory, a floor cloud waiting to, but never evaporating, a to-do list item incessantly lapping at our feet.  Warm weather is a distant memory here in the North East.  It’s been a while.

Salvation at last: a cleaner specifically made for down-filled gear.  Eureka!  I spotted it at Eastern Mountain Sports store.  It’s a non-detergent cleaner that’s supposed to restore loft and maintain the natural oils of the feathers.  Hurray!  Duvet cloud away!

On a considerably more interesting note, I realized today that we live in the middle of yin and yang in Pennsylvania.  Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer had generous coverage of the annual New Year’s Day Mummer’s Parade.  Where else do grown men, bedecked in sparkles and feathers compete to out-bedazzle each other?  An accompanying  article about the return of a group of drag queens to the event, with a necessary explanation of the difference between drag queens and other cross-dressing groups in the parade, made me smile.

Then there was an article about a controversial new “reality?” show called Amish Mafia.  I guess it’s a great draw to  feel morally superior to Amish people.  Whether its premise is true or not, reading both stories made me realize how we live almost  equidistant from the wild and wooly city one one side, and the plain, primitive Amish farm lands on the other, east and west.  Two extremes.  I felt new appreciation for the middle ground.