A Heroic Story for Day 31
General Petraeus graduated near the top of his class at West Point and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton. In 1991 he was accidentally shot in the chest during a training exercise. He endured a 60-mile helicopter flight to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where his life was saved by Dr. Bill Frist, later the Republican leader of the Senate. One thing left out of that story, for those who don’t know, is that Vanderbilt is in Nashville, Tennessee.
Now a Not Heroic Story
I know one guy who was watching a Vanderbilt game a few years ago, who had no idea where the university was! He also volunteered to help me with the crossword. But he learned better. I didn’t need or want help. Besides, he didn’t seem to know anything. He was a college graduate.
♥
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
How to Get Rich
Another story comes to mind, this one from a high school teacher of mine, Mr. Hood. He said once he went from house to house asking for contributions for his church’s building fund. He came to a grand house owned by a rich man and anticipated a sizable donation. Just before his finger would have pressed the doorbell button, he heard the man inside scolding another man, a servant perhaps, for lighting a match for absolutely no reason.
Mr. Hood did not ring, turned around, and started hurrying away. The rich man opened the door and called his would-be visitor back, and invited him into the house. Then he asked him why he tried running away.
Mr. Hood said something like, “I heard you fussing at someone for striking a match unnecessarily. Thought you might be . . .”
“Stingy?” the rich man said.
“Well, yes.”
“Young man, to have money, you have to save money. One way to do that is not to waste matches.”
The rich man wrote the church a generous check.
I don’t know why Mr. Hood told us this story. Perhaps we were wasting our time.
♥
Another story comes to mind, this one from a high school teacher of mine, Mr. Hood. He said once he went from house to house asking for contributions for his church’s building fund. He came to a grand house owned by a rich man and anticipated a sizable donation. Just before his finger would have pressed the doorbell button, he heard the man inside scolding another man, a servant perhaps, for lighting a match for absolutely no reason.
Mr. Hood did not ring, turned around, and started hurrying away. The rich man opened the door and called his would-be visitor back, and invited him into the house. Then he asked him why he tried running away.
Mr. Hood said something like, “I heard you fussing at someone for striking a match unnecessarily. Thought you might be . . .”
“Stingy?” the rich man said.
“Well, yes.”
“Young man, to have money, you have to save money. One way to do that is not to waste matches.”
The rich man wrote the church a generous check.
I don’t know why Mr. Hood told us this story. Perhaps we were wasting our time.
♥
A Wee Story
In case any of my readers haven’t noticed, more than one posting a day is my current method of blogging, in order to get in 31 for the month. So, you’d better check to see if you’ve missed one of my great works of prose. (I am the first to say they could use a great deal of work, but I am trying to write a book at the same time, you know. Can’t spend too much time on . . . trivia?)
I keep in the back of my mind a little story that amused me greatly at the time and I want to share it, knowing it may not be funny to any of you. But here goes.
A man told about the gathering of his family for Christmas one year. At some point, the elderly mother found a daughter of hers doing needlework and scolded her for working on Christmas Day. The daughter said, “Mother, it’s not the same as working on Sunday.” The mother replied, “It’s samer.”
♥
In case any of my readers haven’t noticed, more than one posting a day is my current method of blogging, in order to get in 31 for the month. So, you’d better check to see if you’ve missed one of my great works of prose. (I am the first to say they could use a great deal of work, but I am trying to write a book at the same time, you know. Can’t spend too much time on . . . trivia?)
I keep in the back of my mind a little story that amused me greatly at the time and I want to share it, knowing it may not be funny to any of you. But here goes.
A man told about the gathering of his family for Christmas one year. At some point, the elderly mother found a daughter of hers doing needlework and scolded her for working on Christmas Day. The daughter said, “Mother, it’s not the same as working on Sunday.” The mother replied, “It’s samer.”
♥
Coming Up Soon
You writers and readers out there, you might like to bear this in mind: once a month Book TV on C-SPAN 2 interviews in depth a famous writer. In December that was Salman Rushdie, and I believe it was early in the month that show aired, on a Saturday, I think it was. If not, it was Sunday. The January guest just might be your favorite modern author. So, be prepared. Remember, the program is apparently three hours long, with one or two short pit stops perhaps. You can even call in with a question during the latter part of the program. So, get a notepad ready (just in case) and gather all the snacks you’ll want before you start, turn off the phones, and enjoy!
And Emma darling, you might enjoy this.
♥
You writers and readers out there, you might like to bear this in mind: once a month Book TV on C-SPAN 2 interviews in depth a famous writer. In December that was Salman Rushdie, and I believe it was early in the month that show aired, on a Saturday, I think it was. If not, it was Sunday. The January guest just might be your favorite modern author. So, be prepared. Remember, the program is apparently three hours long, with one or two short pit stops perhaps. You can even call in with a question during the latter part of the program. So, get a notepad ready (just in case) and gather all the snacks you’ll want before you start, turn off the phones, and enjoy!
And Emma darling, you might enjoy this.
♥
Oprah and I
If you missed a recent comment here, please go back to my “College Majors” and read a good one. Near the end of it, you’ll learn something about Oprah’s reading, rather lack of it. I was astounded. Oprah and I happened to have graduated from the same high school, though several years apart, of course, and with different teachers. The books she said she missed, I read in that school. How times have changed. She’s in for a treat as she reads these two famous novels by Charles Dickens.
♥
If you missed a recent comment here, please go back to my “College Majors” and read a good one. Near the end of it, you’ll learn something about Oprah’s reading, rather lack of it. I was astounded. Oprah and I happened to have graduated from the same high school, though several years apart, of course, and with different teachers. The books she said she missed, I read in that school. How times have changed. She’s in for a treat as she reads these two famous novels by Charles Dickens.
♥
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tony Blair in Debate
Some of you might not have heard, but Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, became a Catholic after he left that office. A few nights ago, he debated on the telly a prominent atheist on a topic having to do with religion in one’s life, specifically Christianity. I could have predicted—no, I did predict—that Tony would lose. [Blair likes to be on a first-name basis.]
Tony was dressed in a gray suit, had gray hair, needed his teeth whitened, and was at a disadvantage with regard to camera angle some of the time. He looked to exist in a gray mist. His opponent, an older man with esophageal cancer, we were told, wore a black suit, didn’t show teeth, kept a stiff upper lip, spoke clearly, and in spite of coughs and sniffles, proved to be a great wit. He made Tony laugh, as well as me. But when Tony uttered a funny remark, his voice faded away as he turned to the people on his right to laugh. His voice sounded rather mushy, like Prince Charles’s voice, to boot. It didn’t seem as if Tony had had any coaching when he needed it. But the atheist was in his element and he won by a big majority. Won with the negative approach to religion in one’s life. Here’s one of his sick little jokes:
He said, in essence, George Bush says he found Christ and stopped drinking. I say, Christ came to him in the form of Laura Bush, who told him, if you don’t stop drinking, I’ll leave you and take the kids.
My real complaint to all this is that Protestantism was not represented in this debate. It was a great waste of time as debate, but it was entertaining.
♥
Some of you might not have heard, but Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, became a Catholic after he left that office. A few nights ago, he debated on the telly a prominent atheist on a topic having to do with religion in one’s life, specifically Christianity. I could have predicted—no, I did predict—that Tony would lose. [Blair likes to be on a first-name basis.]
Tony was dressed in a gray suit, had gray hair, needed his teeth whitened, and was at a disadvantage with regard to camera angle some of the time. He looked to exist in a gray mist. His opponent, an older man with esophageal cancer, we were told, wore a black suit, didn’t show teeth, kept a stiff upper lip, spoke clearly, and in spite of coughs and sniffles, proved to be a great wit. He made Tony laugh, as well as me. But when Tony uttered a funny remark, his voice faded away as he turned to the people on his right to laugh. His voice sounded rather mushy, like Prince Charles’s voice, to boot. It didn’t seem as if Tony had had any coaching when he needed it. But the atheist was in his element and he won by a big majority. Won with the negative approach to religion in one’s life. Here’s one of his sick little jokes:
He said, in essence, George Bush says he found Christ and stopped drinking. I say, Christ came to him in the form of Laura Bush, who told him, if you don’t stop drinking, I’ll leave you and take the kids.
My real complaint to all this is that Protestantism was not represented in this debate. It was a great waste of time as debate, but it was entertaining.
♥
Did You Know Why?
I’m trying my best to end 2010 with 31 blog postings for December. Maybe I’ll have another thought before the day is too far gone. But, of course, I can’t stop here. Let me dig a minute.
I’m not the superstitious type, but there is one such thing I do believe and observe. On New Year’s Day I eat black-eyed peas, but only as a side dish. That’s supposed to make one prosperous during the next year.
However, the way it was originally intended was that if your New Year’s feast consisted of only black-eyed peas with hog jowl, you could eat frugally that way throughout the year, and therefore, not be poor. I know that’s what they meant, for I was in the next room and heard them plan the truth, not as superstition, way back in the 17th century, I think.
Don’t forget to buy your black-eyed peas for this Saturday. Dry, frozen, or canned. For the true flavor, don’t add anything to the pot except a pinch of salt. And hog jowl, of course.
♥
I’m trying my best to end 2010 with 31 blog postings for December. Maybe I’ll have another thought before the day is too far gone. But, of course, I can’t stop here. Let me dig a minute.
I’m not the superstitious type, but there is one such thing I do believe and observe. On New Year’s Day I eat black-eyed peas, but only as a side dish. That’s supposed to make one prosperous during the next year.
However, the way it was originally intended was that if your New Year’s feast consisted of only black-eyed peas with hog jowl, you could eat frugally that way throughout the year, and therefore, not be poor. I know that’s what they meant, for I was in the next room and heard them plan the truth, not as superstition, way back in the 17th century, I think.
Don’t forget to buy your black-eyed peas for this Saturday. Dry, frozen, or canned. For the true flavor, don’t add anything to the pot except a pinch of salt. And hog jowl, of course.
♥
To Speak, or Not to Speak
Just as I detest silly statements, I love clever statements, sentences, titles, and even phrases. I just heard one and thought you might chuckle too. The lady said about two famous men in American history: “They conversed in pauses.” However, I caught the name of only one of them. The above statement can’t be a surprise to history buffs, for one of the pausing guys was once-president Calvin Coolidge, also known as “Silent Cal.” [You can learn such things as this by working good crosswords.]
♥
Just as I detest silly statements, I love clever statements, sentences, titles, and even phrases. I just heard one and thought you might chuckle too. The lady said about two famous men in American history: “They conversed in pauses.” However, I caught the name of only one of them. The above statement can’t be a surprise to history buffs, for one of the pausing guys was once-president Calvin Coolidge, also known as “Silent Cal.” [You can learn such things as this by working good crosswords.]
♥
Yet to Do
Christmas cards and letters are still coming, but that’s not bad: I haven’t written my Christmas letter yet. I usually write a long detailed one early in December, but this year, I just didn’t want to write one. But I must send a New Year’s letter. So that all those people won’t think I’ve kicked the bucket. [I wonder how that expression got started.]
♥
Christmas cards and letters are still coming, but that’s not bad: I haven’t written my Christmas letter yet. I usually write a long detailed one early in December, but this year, I just didn’t want to write one. But I must send a New Year’s letter. So that all those people won’t think I’ve kicked the bucket. [I wonder how that expression got started.]
♥
Monday, December 27, 2010
College Majors
In America thousands of college graduates are not working in the fields they trained for. Sometimes the economy dictates such situations; job openings may not exist. But other factors also figure into the equation. Some are disappointed with the field chosen. Many students arrive at college without knowing what to study. Perhaps all they had in mind was to play football or be a yell queen. Sad to say, often those without a star to guide them end up majoring in education, and without such an original plan, they become teachers without a great love or talent for the art. Some of these promptly begin summer courses to get out of the classroom and into counseling (many a school counselor was a failure in the classroom), or to study an entirely different subject perhaps, such as flying a plane. Of course, some do study their major field further and become better trained.
Another group takes the cake, however, and I’ve run into a few of them. They major in a subject, graduate, and then think they’ve learned it all. They wouldn’t be caught dead studying further on their own, never reading another book of their own specialty. Sooner or later, they will likely run into a superior in the field who shows much more knowledge by having kept up with changes in his field. They themselves may be perfectly satisfied not to progress up the ladder. Changes come to every field and it’s most likely worth the effort to keep up.
Perhaps the most accessible changes appear in my chosen major: literature. In another word, English. “English” covers all literature written in English and all translated into English. New books are coming off the presses every day. What a vast universe of thought! And like most universes, we can’t take it all in, for today it seems almost everyone is writing or has written a book. If you watch the C-SPAN channels on the weekends, amazement awaits you with regard to the wide topics written about. Yesterday, a writer spoke about his new biography of the Atlantic Ocean. I didn’t hear much of that speech, but I did hear him say, one of his earlier books sold only 12 copies.
I heard another writer say the first printing of his first story sold out in no time, just outside the Oval Office, at fifteen cents a copy! That was David Eisenhower and his grandfather occupied the Oval Office. That’s taking advantage of a good opportunity.
I recommend David and Julie Eisenhower’s new book Going Home to Glory, about the retirement years of Dwight Eisenhower. I heard both of them speak about the book Saturday, twice. I can hardly wait to read it.
You see, literature never stops but just keeps growing. I am enjoying my college major every day of my life. And I use it, such as in blogging and other writings.
♥
In America thousands of college graduates are not working in the fields they trained for. Sometimes the economy dictates such situations; job openings may not exist. But other factors also figure into the equation. Some are disappointed with the field chosen. Many students arrive at college without knowing what to study. Perhaps all they had in mind was to play football or be a yell queen. Sad to say, often those without a star to guide them end up majoring in education, and without such an original plan, they become teachers without a great love or talent for the art. Some of these promptly begin summer courses to get out of the classroom and into counseling (many a school counselor was a failure in the classroom), or to study an entirely different subject perhaps, such as flying a plane. Of course, some do study their major field further and become better trained.
Another group takes the cake, however, and I’ve run into a few of them. They major in a subject, graduate, and then think they’ve learned it all. They wouldn’t be caught dead studying further on their own, never reading another book of their own specialty. Sooner or later, they will likely run into a superior in the field who shows much more knowledge by having kept up with changes in his field. They themselves may be perfectly satisfied not to progress up the ladder. Changes come to every field and it’s most likely worth the effort to keep up.
Perhaps the most accessible changes appear in my chosen major: literature. In another word, English. “English” covers all literature written in English and all translated into English. New books are coming off the presses every day. What a vast universe of thought! And like most universes, we can’t take it all in, for today it seems almost everyone is writing or has written a book. If you watch the C-SPAN channels on the weekends, amazement awaits you with regard to the wide topics written about. Yesterday, a writer spoke about his new biography of the Atlantic Ocean. I didn’t hear much of that speech, but I did hear him say, one of his earlier books sold only 12 copies.
I heard another writer say the first printing of his first story sold out in no time, just outside the Oval Office, at fifteen cents a copy! That was David Eisenhower and his grandfather occupied the Oval Office. That’s taking advantage of a good opportunity.
I recommend David and Julie Eisenhower’s new book Going Home to Glory, about the retirement years of Dwight Eisenhower. I heard both of them speak about the book Saturday, twice. I can hardly wait to read it.
You see, literature never stops but just keeps growing. I am enjoying my college major every day of my life. And I use it, such as in blogging and other writings.
♥
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
About Christmas
Christmas is almost here. Piles of random snow get smaller each day, with the brilliant morning sun beaming down on them. That is, if you’re on the right side of the road. My house is. But I prefer that it snow on the ski slopes; down below I hope for clear and safe roads.
I’m glad for the Bose, for sending Christmas music throughout the house. And, unlike the victrolas of my youth, the Bose takes care of itself. What a great invention the compact disk was! The CD, hair spray, and the dripless laundry detergent bottle lid. They’re the greatest inventions of the last fifty years. I didn’t do the math for this estimate.
I’m thankful for my large family, though I’m not anticipating seeing any of them this Christmas. They are scattered about and busy with their own lives. But I shall enjoy the season. Several photos of great grandchildren in Kentucky have arrived, and I look at these over and over again. The last time I saw them may become the last time I see them. But that is true for all of us.
I am most thankful for the Reason for Christmas, the birth of the baby Jesus, who was born to be King and Lord of our lives. How miserable everything would be without Him. Everything is miserable where He is not welcome, of course. That’s why the misery abounds.
I’m glad I live in America where I can still observe this special season. May that right from God never be lost.
And I wish you a wonderful, happy Christmas and a great New Year.
♥
Christmas is almost here. Piles of random snow get smaller each day, with the brilliant morning sun beaming down on them. That is, if you’re on the right side of the road. My house is. But I prefer that it snow on the ski slopes; down below I hope for clear and safe roads.
I’m glad for the Bose, for sending Christmas music throughout the house. And, unlike the victrolas of my youth, the Bose takes care of itself. What a great invention the compact disk was! The CD, hair spray, and the dripless laundry detergent bottle lid. They’re the greatest inventions of the last fifty years. I didn’t do the math for this estimate.
I’m thankful for my large family, though I’m not anticipating seeing any of them this Christmas. They are scattered about and busy with their own lives. But I shall enjoy the season. Several photos of great grandchildren in Kentucky have arrived, and I look at these over and over again. The last time I saw them may become the last time I see them. But that is true for all of us.
I am most thankful for the Reason for Christmas, the birth of the baby Jesus, who was born to be King and Lord of our lives. How miserable everything would be without Him. Everything is miserable where He is not welcome, of course. That’s why the misery abounds.
I’m glad I live in America where I can still observe this special season. May that right from God never be lost.
And I wish you a wonderful, happy Christmas and a great New Year.
♥
Cry, Laugh, and Cry Again
If you’re one to notice errors that occasionally turn up in otherwise well-published books, perhaps, like me, you have concluded they seem to pile up near the end of the book. It seems as if the printer (typesetter?) crowds words together in order not to need another page, or the proofreader, or even the author checking the galleys, wants not to spend another minute on this manuscript and hurries with such a speed, he misses some dillies.
This happened in Bloody Crimes. Near the end of book is a statement that includes a singular subject with the verb “lie” for the past tense form, such as, “Yesterday the book lie on this table,” when it should have been “lay,” whether singular or plural. That line is crowded well enough to lead me to think the printer might have chosen “lie” over “lay,” just to save space and get all the words on that line. For in modern print, “lay” takes up more room than does “lie.” Then just a few paragraphs later, we read the correct version of “while he lay in state.” I think the hideous error originated and ended with the publisher.
Remember, in an earlier blog I pointed out that a regular anchor at C-SPAN said twice that President Ford’s body lied in state. That was a shock.
Perhaps we need a stimulus bill to straighten out the country on the verbs to lie and to lay. I could teach that, with no assistants. I’d need a chalkboard, a piece of chalk, a few students in front of me, and then a camera filming it for the rest of the country. One fifty-minute session would do. Wouldn’t one billion dollars in the budget be about right for that job?
♥
If you’re one to notice errors that occasionally turn up in otherwise well-published books, perhaps, like me, you have concluded they seem to pile up near the end of the book. It seems as if the printer (typesetter?) crowds words together in order not to need another page, or the proofreader, or even the author checking the galleys, wants not to spend another minute on this manuscript and hurries with such a speed, he misses some dillies.
This happened in Bloody Crimes. Near the end of book is a statement that includes a singular subject with the verb “lie” for the past tense form, such as, “Yesterday the book lie on this table,” when it should have been “lay,” whether singular or plural. That line is crowded well enough to lead me to think the printer might have chosen “lie” over “lay,” just to save space and get all the words on that line. For in modern print, “lay” takes up more room than does “lie.” Then just a few paragraphs later, we read the correct version of “while he lay in state.” I think the hideous error originated and ended with the publisher.
Remember, in an earlier blog I pointed out that a regular anchor at C-SPAN said twice that President Ford’s body lied in state. That was a shock.
Perhaps we need a stimulus bill to straighten out the country on the verbs to lie and to lay. I could teach that, with no assistants. I’d need a chalkboard, a piece of chalk, a few students in front of me, and then a camera filming it for the rest of the country. One fifty-minute session would do. Wouldn’t one billion dollars in the budget be about right for that job?
♥
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Lincoln and Davis, A Study in Contrasts
Last night I finished reading Bloody Crimes, 407 pages, and am now so much better informed on America‘s Civil War, and on President Lincoln and President [of the American Confederacy] Davis. Of special interest is the indirect route the funeral train followed in transporting Lincoln’s corpse between Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Illinois, over 1,600 miles, covering major cities in New York State, with numerous stops in towns for the citizens to view the body. The beloved president was finally laid to rest fifteen days after his death. I feel Lincoln, the “common man,” would not have approved of any of these trappings and displays, had he known. His widow and children attended none of these doings, not even his funeral in the East Room at the White House.
By contrast, the funeral train of the 90-year-old Davis left New Orleans and traveled directly to Richmond, Virginia, for his interment in the family plot. His train also made stops in towns, but kept a closed casket. The surprising aspect is that a greater number of people turned out along roads and at railroad stations to see this train than the number who had waited for Lincoln’s. On the day of Davis’s burial, bells all over Washington, D. C., rang out in recognition of the occasion.
But it’s Lincoln the nation remembers today, not Davis. However, every American history buff owes it to himself to read this work. A previous book by James Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, tempts me now. But there is to be a detour.
About 24 years ago our daughter gave her father and me a well-bound two-volume boxed set of The President’s House by William Seale, published by the White House Historical Association with the cooperation of the National Geographic Society. Three chapters are devoted to the Lincoln years in the White House. Those are my next study, with the expectation of reading the entire guesstimate of 25 pounds of these two volumes before my train pulls out of the station.
They've been standing behind a shelf of videos and DVDs, in a darkish corner, and I just never got to them before now.
♥
Last night I finished reading Bloody Crimes, 407 pages, and am now so much better informed on America‘s Civil War, and on President Lincoln and President [of the American Confederacy] Davis. Of special interest is the indirect route the funeral train followed in transporting Lincoln’s corpse between Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Illinois, over 1,600 miles, covering major cities in New York State, with numerous stops in towns for the citizens to view the body. The beloved president was finally laid to rest fifteen days after his death. I feel Lincoln, the “common man,” would not have approved of any of these trappings and displays, had he known. His widow and children attended none of these doings, not even his funeral in the East Room at the White House.
By contrast, the funeral train of the 90-year-old Davis left New Orleans and traveled directly to Richmond, Virginia, for his interment in the family plot. His train also made stops in towns, but kept a closed casket. The surprising aspect is that a greater number of people turned out along roads and at railroad stations to see this train than the number who had waited for Lincoln’s. On the day of Davis’s burial, bells all over Washington, D. C., rang out in recognition of the occasion.
But it’s Lincoln the nation remembers today, not Davis. However, every American history buff owes it to himself to read this work. A previous book by James Swanson, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, tempts me now. But there is to be a detour.
About 24 years ago our daughter gave her father and me a well-bound two-volume boxed set of The President’s House by William Seale, published by the White House Historical Association with the cooperation of the National Geographic Society. Three chapters are devoted to the Lincoln years in the White House. Those are my next study, with the expectation of reading the entire guesstimate of 25 pounds of these two volumes before my train pulls out of the station.
They've been standing behind a shelf of videos and DVDs, in a darkish corner, and I just never got to them before now.
♥
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Gone with the Wind and the Real Lincoln
It’s amazing how much history we don’t learn from classroom history texts through grade twelve. Adding to the problem, most school history books are dull reading. In my American History class in 11th grade, we either enjoyed or detested an additional reading list of books that probably enlightened us more than text or teacher. Shortly after the movie “Gone with the Wind” premiered in Atlanta and then spread to the rest of the country, that novel appeared on our reading list. I had read the book but had not seen the film, and wrote a report on a book called Red Caps and Lilies. I’m sure I felt writing a report on GWTW was too daunting an assignment for me at the moment. After all, the book was over 1,000 pages.
At last, doomsday arrived and the students in my class who had written a report on the book Gone with the Wind were singled out for a private chat with the teacher in the hall. Later we learned these students faced the question, “How many children did Scarlett have?” If the student answered “one,” she most likely got an F on the report turned in. I say “she,” for most high school boys I’ve taught would not willingly choose such a huge book unless it was science fiction.
And so it was with the history about President Lincoln. The textbook failed us. Let me tell you a tidbit from Bloody Crimes. With several doctors in the room, each seemingly with a special expertise, title, or office, one surgeon removed Lincoln’s brain to retrieve the bullet. But he especially wanted to know how large Lincoln’s brain was. With great surprise, he learned Lincoln’s brain was no larger than an ordinary man’s brain. If such information had been in our history textbook, that book and that class would have held our attention. The same analysis could surely fit many other periods of American history our students are required to read. They make dull reading.
I wouldn’t mind reading Red Caps and Lilies again now, for I’ve totally forgotten what it was about.
♥
It’s amazing how much history we don’t learn from classroom history texts through grade twelve. Adding to the problem, most school history books are dull reading. In my American History class in 11th grade, we either enjoyed or detested an additional reading list of books that probably enlightened us more than text or teacher. Shortly after the movie “Gone with the Wind” premiered in Atlanta and then spread to the rest of the country, that novel appeared on our reading list. I had read the book but had not seen the film, and wrote a report on a book called Red Caps and Lilies. I’m sure I felt writing a report on GWTW was too daunting an assignment for me at the moment. After all, the book was over 1,000 pages.
At last, doomsday arrived and the students in my class who had written a report on the book Gone with the Wind were singled out for a private chat with the teacher in the hall. Later we learned these students faced the question, “How many children did Scarlett have?” If the student answered “one,” she most likely got an F on the report turned in. I say “she,” for most high school boys I’ve taught would not willingly choose such a huge book unless it was science fiction.
And so it was with the history about President Lincoln. The textbook failed us. Let me tell you a tidbit from Bloody Crimes. With several doctors in the room, each seemingly with a special expertise, title, or office, one surgeon removed Lincoln’s brain to retrieve the bullet. But he especially wanted to know how large Lincoln’s brain was. With great surprise, he learned Lincoln’s brain was no larger than an ordinary man’s brain. If such information had been in our history textbook, that book and that class would have held our attention. The same analysis could surely fit many other periods of American history our students are required to read. They make dull reading.
I wouldn’t mind reading Red Caps and Lilies again now, for I’ve totally forgotten what it was about.
♥
Friday, December 17, 2010
Some Short Stories Worth Your While
Yesterday I was inside a big book store and didn’t buy a single book, and saw only one that interested me. But I’ll wait till it’s on sale and get on with the present reading. It was a biography of author Roald Dahl.
Some of my students got assigned to read a short story of his, a near-perfect story, according to the “rules” for writing short stories. That story is “Beware of the Dog,” a World War II tale. It also made a movie, but for American audiences, who generally don’t know French, the sign in a yard, warning about the dog, was omitted. Instead, the Angelus rang when the protagonist knew it shouldn’t ring. By that he knew he was not in England, but in the hands of the enemy. Well, by that, and by a few other indications.
This story by (Chocolate Factory) Dahl and Jack London’s great “To Build a Fire,” are my choices for the best short stories I’ve ever read. Two others I would like to point out with the same praise. The Englishman Somerset Maugham’s “Mr. Know-All” and the Frenchman Guy de Maupassant’s “A String of Pearls.” [I’m not dead sure about that last title. It might be “The Necklace.” I don’t seem to have any longer a book containing it. I give books away and sometimes regret it, but only momentarily.]
Why are these stories great? For one thing, they are lean, cut right to the bone, no wordy flesh, especially the first three mentioned. They have few characters, one of them only one character, plus a dog. They radiate suspense to the last sentence, though none is a murder story. They all work out in the plot analysis chart for short stories. Imaginative powers super-shine and excellent character study abounds, where suitable. Settings don’t get in the way, but what’s there seems necessary and accurate. And then the stories are short.
If you want to write short stories, you’d do well to study these four.
♥
Yesterday I was inside a big book store and didn’t buy a single book, and saw only one that interested me. But I’ll wait till it’s on sale and get on with the present reading. It was a biography of author Roald Dahl.
Some of my students got assigned to read a short story of his, a near-perfect story, according to the “rules” for writing short stories. That story is “Beware of the Dog,” a World War II tale. It also made a movie, but for American audiences, who generally don’t know French, the sign in a yard, warning about the dog, was omitted. Instead, the Angelus rang when the protagonist knew it shouldn’t ring. By that he knew he was not in England, but in the hands of the enemy. Well, by that, and by a few other indications.
This story by (Chocolate Factory) Dahl and Jack London’s great “To Build a Fire,” are my choices for the best short stories I’ve ever read. Two others I would like to point out with the same praise. The Englishman Somerset Maugham’s “Mr. Know-All” and the Frenchman Guy de Maupassant’s “A String of Pearls.” [I’m not dead sure about that last title. It might be “The Necklace.” I don’t seem to have any longer a book containing it. I give books away and sometimes regret it, but only momentarily.]
Why are these stories great? For one thing, they are lean, cut right to the bone, no wordy flesh, especially the first three mentioned. They have few characters, one of them only one character, plus a dog. They radiate suspense to the last sentence, though none is a murder story. They all work out in the plot analysis chart for short stories. Imaginative powers super-shine and excellent character study abounds, where suitable. Settings don’t get in the way, but what’s there seems necessary and accurate. And then the stories are short.
If you want to write short stories, you’d do well to study these four.
♥
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Und So Weiter
How exciting it is to hear the doorbell ring, find no one there, but spy a package left, one in the shape of a book! Today’s delivery is not for me, but for someone else. However, I broke in the book, read the preface, and a page or two of the text, checked the index to see if any of my families’ names were there—you never know—and have decided to ask to borrow the book after the one I’m giving it to has read it. Its subject is way out of my field, but I like to learn everything [long way to go], except the game of bridge. Friends have told me I’d love bridge; that’s why I never wanted to learn how to play it. Those poor books going to waste on the shelf!
Now I’m back into a book started along with others. It wasn’t laid aside because of lack of attraction. It’s most fascinating. Bloody Crimes by James Swanson, about Lincoln and Davis, remember? Jefferson Davis, president of the American Confederacy. It’s so intriguing that I actually want to underline every sentence, and I want to talk about every sentence in this blog. But I won’t. It’s enough to recommend it. Well, maybe not enough; I really want to stress the recommendation.
When I typed the word “laid” above, it reminded me of a terrible error I recently read in a book, The Heart Mender, I think it was. The line contained “had lay” instead of the correct “had lain.” Where lies the problem exactly? With the publishers or with the schools, elementary schools specifically? I say with the schools, and I do mean elementary, the level for mastering grammar. But if the author didn’t learn this in school, an editor at the publishing house should have caught it. If there’s any area of rampant grammar-not-learned in this country, it is with the verbs, to lie and to lay.
♥
How exciting it is to hear the doorbell ring, find no one there, but spy a package left, one in the shape of a book! Today’s delivery is not for me, but for someone else. However, I broke in the book, read the preface, and a page or two of the text, checked the index to see if any of my families’ names were there—you never know—and have decided to ask to borrow the book after the one I’m giving it to has read it. Its subject is way out of my field, but I like to learn everything [long way to go], except the game of bridge. Friends have told me I’d love bridge; that’s why I never wanted to learn how to play it. Those poor books going to waste on the shelf!
Now I’m back into a book started along with others. It wasn’t laid aside because of lack of attraction. It’s most fascinating. Bloody Crimes by James Swanson, about Lincoln and Davis, remember? Jefferson Davis, president of the American Confederacy. It’s so intriguing that I actually want to underline every sentence, and I want to talk about every sentence in this blog. But I won’t. It’s enough to recommend it. Well, maybe not enough; I really want to stress the recommendation.
When I typed the word “laid” above, it reminded me of a terrible error I recently read in a book, The Heart Mender, I think it was. The line contained “had lay” instead of the correct “had lain.” Where lies the problem exactly? With the publishers or with the schools, elementary schools specifically? I say with the schools, and I do mean elementary, the level for mastering grammar. But if the author didn’t learn this in school, an editor at the publishing house should have caught it. If there’s any area of rampant grammar-not-learned in this country, it is with the verbs, to lie and to lay.
♥
Monday, December 13, 2010
Where Are We Now?
Here’s a quotation from The Heart Mender that is worth some praise. A character says, “’You know, if all you have is a hammer . . . everything pretty much looks like a nail.’” Clever! I ♥ epigrams.
Then we read something many of you have read before. This time it is credited to Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, as early as 1787, so perhaps he is the originator of this discovery and summation: “’[A democracy has] an average existence of two hundred years . . . [progressing] through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; and finally from dependence back into bondage.’”
Where would you say the United States of America is today on this rise-and-fall mountain?
♥
Here’s a quotation from The Heart Mender that is worth some praise. A character says, “’You know, if all you have is a hammer . . . everything pretty much looks like a nail.’” Clever! I ♥ epigrams.
Then we read something many of you have read before. This time it is credited to Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, as early as 1787, so perhaps he is the originator of this discovery and summation: “’[A democracy has] an average existence of two hundred years . . . [progressing] through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; and finally from dependence back into bondage.’”
Where would you say the United States of America is today on this rise-and-fall mountain?
♥
Winter Reading
In one week and one day winter begins. I wonder what all that snow we’ve just lived through was called, autumn? Well, at least the daylight hours will begin to get longer. But while the nights are still dark early, it’s a great time for cuddling up with a book. If there are two of you, reading different books, try sitting back-to-back on a sofa with your feet up and an afghan across them. One lamp can illuminate both volumes. Could be called cuddling up with a book, right? If one of you starts to snore, the other just needs to wiggle his or her shoulders to stop it.
I’m half through another story which I recommend. It’s a small book, 239 short pages, called The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews. Interested in learning more about World War II? I always am, since it was my generation’s war. But I had no idea till now that Hitler’s submarines plowed the Gulf of Mexico, torpedoing our cargo ships carrying food to our troops overseas. The author says this is a true story, but this information was kept out of the news at the time. However, the Alabama locals knew. One of my great grandsons is especially interested in this historical time; so, he’ll get this book. It contains mystery, and perhaps some romance is yet to show. Has memorable characters, but I must not divulge too much here.
Tomorrow I should be in another book with something to say about it perhaps.
♥
In one week and one day winter begins. I wonder what all that snow we’ve just lived through was called, autumn? Well, at least the daylight hours will begin to get longer. But while the nights are still dark early, it’s a great time for cuddling up with a book. If there are two of you, reading different books, try sitting back-to-back on a sofa with your feet up and an afghan across them. One lamp can illuminate both volumes. Could be called cuddling up with a book, right? If one of you starts to snore, the other just needs to wiggle his or her shoulders to stop it.
I’m half through another story which I recommend. It’s a small book, 239 short pages, called The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews. Interested in learning more about World War II? I always am, since it was my generation’s war. But I had no idea till now that Hitler’s submarines plowed the Gulf of Mexico, torpedoing our cargo ships carrying food to our troops overseas. The author says this is a true story, but this information was kept out of the news at the time. However, the Alabama locals knew. One of my great grandsons is especially interested in this historical time; so, he’ll get this book. It contains mystery, and perhaps some romance is yet to show. Has memorable characters, but I must not divulge too much here.
Tomorrow I should be in another book with something to say about it perhaps.
♥
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Bobby Jindal
His real name is Piyush Amrit Jindal but he chose “Bobby” for he identified with Bobby on “The Brady Bunch” television show when he was a boy. When he becomes president, I imagine we’ll call him President Bobby, for most Americans will love this man. He is brilliant, with just the right experience needed for the Oval Office. He makes decisions fast, a characteristic of successful people. As I’ve already said, it seems his strongest trait is common sense, sometimes rare in evidence in Washington. For Congress he has ideas most of you will like, but he left out one thing in their regard. He forgot to say—or maybe it’ll be in another book—that members of Congress should pay into Social Security like the rest of us. But one great idea he offers is that Congress should not be a full-time job for anyone. Isn’t that a great idea? Of course, they won’t have so many bills or committees or breaks as they have now. He’s for the president’s having the line-item veto, and that would cut out earmarks. If anyone can straighten out the mess currently in Washington, I say he’s the one.
I could reveal much more here, but it’s better that you get this short book and read it yourself. It’s Leadership and Crisis.
A postscript here for the foregoing blog: I once read in a book that every couple who would like to stay happily married should read War and Peace once a year. Someone made a joke, naturally, that if they read that every year, they wouldn’t have time to fight.
♥
His real name is Piyush Amrit Jindal but he chose “Bobby” for he identified with Bobby on “The Brady Bunch” television show when he was a boy. When he becomes president, I imagine we’ll call him President Bobby, for most Americans will love this man. He is brilliant, with just the right experience needed for the Oval Office. He makes decisions fast, a characteristic of successful people. As I’ve already said, it seems his strongest trait is common sense, sometimes rare in evidence in Washington. For Congress he has ideas most of you will like, but he left out one thing in their regard. He forgot to say—or maybe it’ll be in another book—that members of Congress should pay into Social Security like the rest of us. But one great idea he offers is that Congress should not be a full-time job for anyone. Isn’t that a great idea? Of course, they won’t have so many bills or committees or breaks as they have now. He’s for the president’s having the line-item veto, and that would cut out earmarks. If anyone can straighten out the mess currently in Washington, I say he’s the one.
I could reveal much more here, but it’s better that you get this short book and read it yourself. It’s Leadership and Crisis.
A postscript here for the foregoing blog: I once read in a book that every couple who would like to stay happily married should read War and Peace once a year. Someone made a joke, naturally, that if they read that every year, they wouldn’t have time to fight.
♥
Getting the Most Out of Lit and Life
You writers out there must read Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life. I’ve mentioned this before, but it gets even better near the end. A memoir, I suppose it’s called, it has a chapter on Paris that is entirely different from the usual tourist description of a visit there. This one gets under the French skin, if I may coin a venue, not that he writes much about people as he does about unusual food, writing a book there, and his big heroic act in saving a burning man. He doesn’t call himself a hero; rather, he says he’s always been a coward.
You just might fall in love with Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel and you’ll get a copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, if you’ve never read it before now. Or maybe even if you have read it before.
War and Peace is a tall order. My unfulfilled dream is to have a small reading circle (no more than six persons) read it at the same time, then get together (without a single absenteeism) once a week for a two-hour discussion of it, with coffee and cakes, of course, until everyone in the club has finished it. They would likely continue discussing it the rest of their lives. It is considered the world’s greatest novel and Tolstoy the world’s greatest novelist mainly because of it.
In my collection of DVD’s and videos is a six-hour video of War and Peace in Russian. You don’t have to know Russian to enjoy this film. It is perhaps the most beautiful cinematic production I’ve ever seen. If I had my little reading circle, we could watch it together, ideally, all six hours of it during one day, with a Russian lunch included. But a reading circle like this demands devotion—devotion to the required reading time. Sad to say, most people are too busy for such today. They aren’t getting the most out of life.
But a long version of the film in English does survive. I saw only parts of it many years ago, on PBS, with Audrey Hepburn as one of its many stars. It went on for weeks; seems it might have run three months on Masterpiece Theatre. Conway says on page 280, “If I have one certainty in the world, it is that Adolph Hitler did not read War and Peace before he sent the armies of the Third Reich into the heart of Russia.” And he wonders if George W. Bush read the masterpiece before the invasion of Iraq.
My Reading Life contains much more than what I’ve touched upon here. I suggest you read the little volume of only 337 short pages. Gorgeous prose spurts up on about every page. I shall dip into this one again and again.
♥
You writers out there must read Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life. I’ve mentioned this before, but it gets even better near the end. A memoir, I suppose it’s called, it has a chapter on Paris that is entirely different from the usual tourist description of a visit there. This one gets under the French skin, if I may coin a venue, not that he writes much about people as he does about unusual food, writing a book there, and his big heroic act in saving a burning man. He doesn’t call himself a hero; rather, he says he’s always been a coward.
You just might fall in love with Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel and you’ll get a copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, if you’ve never read it before now. Or maybe even if you have read it before.
War and Peace is a tall order. My unfulfilled dream is to have a small reading circle (no more than six persons) read it at the same time, then get together (without a single absenteeism) once a week for a two-hour discussion of it, with coffee and cakes, of course, until everyone in the club has finished it. They would likely continue discussing it the rest of their lives. It is considered the world’s greatest novel and Tolstoy the world’s greatest novelist mainly because of it.
In my collection of DVD’s and videos is a six-hour video of War and Peace in Russian. You don’t have to know Russian to enjoy this film. It is perhaps the most beautiful cinematic production I’ve ever seen. If I had my little reading circle, we could watch it together, ideally, all six hours of it during one day, with a Russian lunch included. But a reading circle like this demands devotion—devotion to the required reading time. Sad to say, most people are too busy for such today. They aren’t getting the most out of life.
But a long version of the film in English does survive. I saw only parts of it many years ago, on PBS, with Audrey Hepburn as one of its many stars. It went on for weeks; seems it might have run three months on Masterpiece Theatre. Conway says on page 280, “If I have one certainty in the world, it is that Adolph Hitler did not read War and Peace before he sent the armies of the Third Reich into the heart of Russia.” And he wonders if George W. Bush read the masterpiece before the invasion of Iraq.
My Reading Life contains much more than what I’ve touched upon here. I suggest you read the little volume of only 337 short pages. Gorgeous prose spurts up on about every page. I shall dip into this one again and again.
♥
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
This Old House
For several years it has been my custom to give our house a Christmas present, usually something pretty. This year, however, it’s getting more than one and they are not what anyone would call pretty. They are useful, even necessary: new fluorescent light tubes in the laundry room, a replaced part to the dead bolt on the front door, and new roof gutters with covers to keep out leaves from my neighbor’s huge weeping willow tree. The first snow came this year before the trees had shed all their leaves, and our yards and gutters were caught unprepared for it.
It wouldn’t surprise me if something else went awry at this time either. But I am so thankful to live in America where, so far, we are able to get these items without ordering and waiting for weeks or months for them. I love America, and I love this old house.
♥
For several years it has been my custom to give our house a Christmas present, usually something pretty. This year, however, it’s getting more than one and they are not what anyone would call pretty. They are useful, even necessary: new fluorescent light tubes in the laundry room, a replaced part to the dead bolt on the front door, and new roof gutters with covers to keep out leaves from my neighbor’s huge weeping willow tree. The first snow came this year before the trees had shed all their leaves, and our yards and gutters were caught unprepared for it.
It wouldn’t surprise me if something else went awry at this time either. But I am so thankful to live in America where, so far, we are able to get these items without ordering and waiting for weeks or months for them. I love America, and I love this old house.
♥
Monday, December 6, 2010
Salman Rushdie, Part 2
Last night, after 10:00 o’clock, I did watch again most of the three-hour interview with Salman Rushdie, just to get correct the statement about Shakespeare, which came near the end. It was, “There’s Shakespeare, and then there’s the rest of us.” Love it.
This was, by far, the best interview with a writer I’ve experienced yet on C-SPAN2. I disagreed with several of the concepts he holds with regard to religion, and I dare say, politics. He stated, “I’m not a person of religious faith.” His developing belief is that physics will explain everything, especially the creation of the universe, and that is, without “a God in the sky.” He was raised in Islam, but he all but said, “There is no Allah.” He doesn’t complain, he said, if individuals embrace a personal religion for inspiration, or whatever, but he does speak out when he feels religious groups try to influence governments. Yes, he’s familiar with our Constitution. (He appears to have read everything.)
Now here are some gleanings about his life, his writing, and his reading from his answers to questions that poured in:
His Midnight’s Children sold in the multi-millions. He needs solitude to write in. Even a bird chirp would distract him, if he were writing outside. He is attracted to surrealism. His books are research-intensive. His major subject in college was history. Literature [for the writer] is paying attention. The past is made up of shifting sands, and each generation may have a different interpretation. The screen showed his current reading, three books at the same time! [Ever heard of such a thing before?] Some of his favorite books of all time are Joyce’s Ulysses; Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland; and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. His favorite among his own writings is the “next one.” His choice for the best novel to come out of the Nazi era, from the point of view of Nazism [but the author learned], is Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum (1959). Grass won the Nobel Prize in 1999. Some think Rushdie is too controversial to win the Nobel(Internet). One idea is that it might offend the Muslims. In 2007 Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to literature. He has resided longer in England than anywhere else, and that is where he lived when in exile, after his Satanic Verses, a novel, came out. And last, but the most interesting perhaps, he pronounced “err” as “ur,” just the way we learned it, growing up, as we heard, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” “Ur” sounds so much better, regardless of Webster.
About 1:00 a. m., I went to bed after a wonderful evening. Sorry, in case you missed this.
♥
Last night, after 10:00 o’clock, I did watch again most of the three-hour interview with Salman Rushdie, just to get correct the statement about Shakespeare, which came near the end. It was, “There’s Shakespeare, and then there’s the rest of us.” Love it.
This was, by far, the best interview with a writer I’ve experienced yet on C-SPAN2. I disagreed with several of the concepts he holds with regard to religion, and I dare say, politics. He stated, “I’m not a person of religious faith.” His developing belief is that physics will explain everything, especially the creation of the universe, and that is, without “a God in the sky.” He was raised in Islam, but he all but said, “There is no Allah.” He doesn’t complain, he said, if individuals embrace a personal religion for inspiration, or whatever, but he does speak out when he feels religious groups try to influence governments. Yes, he’s familiar with our Constitution. (He appears to have read everything.)
Now here are some gleanings about his life, his writing, and his reading from his answers to questions that poured in:
His Midnight’s Children sold in the multi-millions. He needs solitude to write in. Even a bird chirp would distract him, if he were writing outside. He is attracted to surrealism. His books are research-intensive. His major subject in college was history. Literature [for the writer] is paying attention. The past is made up of shifting sands, and each generation may have a different interpretation. The screen showed his current reading, three books at the same time! [Ever heard of such a thing before?] Some of his favorite books of all time are Joyce’s Ulysses; Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland; and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. His favorite among his own writings is the “next one.” His choice for the best novel to come out of the Nazi era, from the point of view of Nazism [but the author learned], is Gunter Grass’s The Tin Drum (1959). Grass won the Nobel Prize in 1999. Some think Rushdie is too controversial to win the Nobel(Internet). One idea is that it might offend the Muslims. In 2007 Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to literature. He has resided longer in England than anywhere else, and that is where he lived when in exile, after his Satanic Verses, a novel, came out. And last, but the most interesting perhaps, he pronounced “err” as “ur,” just the way we learned it, growing up, as we heard, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” “Ur” sounds so much better, regardless of Webster.
About 1:00 a. m., I went to bed after a wonderful evening. Sorry, in case you missed this.
♥
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Salman Rushdie
Today I discovered C-SPAN2 features a monthly in-depth interview with an author. It must run three hours, for I tuned in late and it had two more hours to go. Two hours to sit there, watch, and listen was just fine, for the writer showcased was Salman Rushdie. I’d never seen him before, or heard his voice; in fact, I hardly knew anything about him other than his hiding out in England awhile because of the “curse” placed upon his life. But that was lifted a short time ago, and he travels the world.
He calls himself an urban writer, for cities are something he knows. He was born in Bombay, now called Mumbai, and has lived in London, and now New York City. A naturalized British citizen and an "overseas citizen of India," he’s back to Bombay soon, to continue working on the production of his novel Midnight’s Children as a movie. Progress is only at the casting stage. I think I want to read this book, but there’s no rush, with so many new books on hand to read.
What I enjoyed most was his saying, when he starts a novel, there are all these people he has to get to know. He means the characters. So he uses my method: the characters just show up and he records what they do and say (in much better prose than mine). He does a huge amount of research, of course, as really good writers must do when writing books such as his. Even though he is Indian by birth, and must have known Bombay well, he nevertheless researched it for the book.
I also enjoyed hearing something like, "Shakespeare is a great writer, and then there are the rest of us." That's not worded right. Perhaps I can get it on paper tonight. I think you can see this also online. Perhaps an hour at a time.
I can’t begin to describe how interesting this presentation was, for there would be too much to say, but if you are interested, it’s scheduled to be rerun tonight. The interviewer said, “At midnight.” That would be Eastern Standard Time. Adjust your time to fit. It’s worth staying up for. For three hours? You bet. Maybe I can catch the first hour then.
♥
Today I discovered C-SPAN2 features a monthly in-depth interview with an author. It must run three hours, for I tuned in late and it had two more hours to go. Two hours to sit there, watch, and listen was just fine, for the writer showcased was Salman Rushdie. I’d never seen him before, or heard his voice; in fact, I hardly knew anything about him other than his hiding out in England awhile because of the “curse” placed upon his life. But that was lifted a short time ago, and he travels the world.
He calls himself an urban writer, for cities are something he knows. He was born in Bombay, now called Mumbai, and has lived in London, and now New York City. A naturalized British citizen and an "overseas citizen of India," he’s back to Bombay soon, to continue working on the production of his novel Midnight’s Children as a movie. Progress is only at the casting stage. I think I want to read this book, but there’s no rush, with so many new books on hand to read.
What I enjoyed most was his saying, when he starts a novel, there are all these people he has to get to know. He means the characters. So he uses my method: the characters just show up and he records what they do and say (in much better prose than mine). He does a huge amount of research, of course, as really good writers must do when writing books such as his. Even though he is Indian by birth, and must have known Bombay well, he nevertheless researched it for the book.
I also enjoyed hearing something like, "Shakespeare is a great writer, and then there are the rest of us." That's not worded right. Perhaps I can get it on paper tonight. I think you can see this also online. Perhaps an hour at a time.
I can’t begin to describe how interesting this presentation was, for there would be too much to say, but if you are interested, it’s scheduled to be rerun tonight. The interviewer said, “At midnight.” That would be Eastern Standard Time. Adjust your time to fit. It’s worth staying up for. For three hours? You bet. Maybe I can catch the first hour then.
♥
The “In” Thing Down Under
People are funny. Just as some Americans pride themselves in being descended from early settlers seeking religious freedom in America, some Australians brag about being descended from the early prisoners England sent to the big island without recourse for their crimes. It’s the “in” thing down under today.
Many years ago I read a thick book about this early history of Australia and for a while, thought I’d never get through it. But I did. It was called The Penal Colony, but I’m not sure who the author was. Not Franz Kafka, and I can’t quite connect the writer Richard Herley (found on the Internet) with it. There is no copyright on titles, and others could have used the same title, of course. Whoever he was, that author didn’t predict then the Aussies would be bragging today about their history there.
♥
People are funny. Just as some Americans pride themselves in being descended from early settlers seeking religious freedom in America, some Australians brag about being descended from the early prisoners England sent to the big island without recourse for their crimes. It’s the “in” thing down under today.
Many years ago I read a thick book about this early history of Australia and for a while, thought I’d never get through it. But I did. It was called The Penal Colony, but I’m not sure who the author was. Not Franz Kafka, and I can’t quite connect the writer Richard Herley (found on the Internet) with it. There is no copyright on titles, and others could have used the same title, of course. Whoever he was, that author didn’t predict then the Aussies would be bragging today about their history there.
♥
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Waiting All Our Lives
Last night I read in two of the current books, two so different from each other, but both somewhat a memoir. One of the writers is full of energy, maintaining a distinguished career before he is 40, and seems to have the strength and determination for miles more; the other writer appears laid-back but is actually under great restraint about all the time. But at one point in his writing, he drives himself to over-concentrate to get a novel written—and this effort breaks up his marriage. He goes through two or three of those, I think he is going to reveal.
The parents of these two men have much to do with their sons’ present circumstances. One son is precocious, has loving parents, and lives a rather privileged childhood; the other writer, in a larger family, also with certain privileges, prays for war so that his fighter pilot father will be killed. Apparently it isn’t enough to fight the enemy of his country; the pilot brings his lust for power home, to shower his wife and several children with it. The writer’s mother leaves the pilot husband after 33 years of marriage, with no assistance from his retirement, but only $500 a month for child support. The pilot husband is shocked, and while he has lost his wife for good, he now begins to try to love his children. The author says, “We’d been waiting all our lives for our dad to love us.” I almost dread to turn the page in this one. Will finish both quickly now. They’ll see you later, no doubt.
♥
Last night I read in two of the current books, two so different from each other, but both somewhat a memoir. One of the writers is full of energy, maintaining a distinguished career before he is 40, and seems to have the strength and determination for miles more; the other writer appears laid-back but is actually under great restraint about all the time. But at one point in his writing, he drives himself to over-concentrate to get a novel written—and this effort breaks up his marriage. He goes through two or three of those, I think he is going to reveal.
The parents of these two men have much to do with their sons’ present circumstances. One son is precocious, has loving parents, and lives a rather privileged childhood; the other writer, in a larger family, also with certain privileges, prays for war so that his fighter pilot father will be killed. Apparently it isn’t enough to fight the enemy of his country; the pilot brings his lust for power home, to shower his wife and several children with it. The writer’s mother leaves the pilot husband after 33 years of marriage, with no assistance from his retirement, but only $500 a month for child support. The pilot husband is shocked, and while he has lost his wife for good, he now begins to try to love his children. The author says, “We’d been waiting all our lives for our dad to love us.” I almost dread to turn the page in this one. Will finish both quickly now. They’ll see you later, no doubt.
♥
Friday, December 3, 2010
I goofed again (see below this blog). Pete took off before I was ready to post this one. I'm just human, after all, and it's Friday.
FYI—You Must Read This Book
He was born in Baton Rouge to immigrant parents from India. He was a convert from Hinduism to Christianity, and a Rhodes Scholar. By age 24 he presided over Louisiana’s healthcare system; by age 27 he headed the University of Louisiana system; at 33 he became a U. S. Congressman; and at age 36 was elected governor of Louisiana. He is there now three years later and is often mentioned as a presidential nominee possibility. At this point, Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, is my choice for the next resident of the White House. His chief characteristic seems to be common sense, and with all that experience and splendid academic record. Perhaps he was ushered into our lives to help save our country. Read Leadership and Crisis, a 283-page-book (plus notes and index), and be enlightened. Easy to read, with great color photos. The shot of his beautiful wife and him, with their three children, will make your day. And an important addition—the governor has a sense of humor.
♥
FYI—You Must Read This Book
He was born in Baton Rouge to immigrant parents from India. He was a convert from Hinduism to Christianity, and a Rhodes Scholar. By age 24 he presided over Louisiana’s healthcare system; by age 27 he headed the University of Louisiana system; at 33 he became a U. S. Congressman; and at age 36 was elected governor of Louisiana. He is there now three years later and is often mentioned as a presidential nominee possibility. At this point, Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, is my choice for the next resident of the White House. His chief characteristic seems to be common sense, and with all that experience and splendid academic record. Perhaps he was ushered into our lives to help save our country. Read Leadership and Crisis, a 283-page-book (plus notes and index), and be enlightened. Easy to read, with great color photos. The shot of his beautiful wife and him, with their three children, will make your day. And an important addition—the governor has a sense of humor.
♥
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Catching Up
Below this blog you will find three other new ones. You perhaps should read them in chronological order. My time has gone into other duties for a few days, leaving me with no suitable occasion for blogging. Nor have I read a great deal. I’m still reading George W. Bush’s Decision Points and am half through Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life. More about those later.
As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy buying first editions, but am no collector of them. Conroy says that when the buyer signs his name in a first edition, it is anathema to the collector. The entire publication must be pristine to be valuable in the “priceless” category. In other words, the collectors don’t read these books. They don’t necessarily read anything, but just collect. Such volumes can, of course, decorate a room with their artistic appearance (temperature-controlled room, of course), just as collectible art does on walls, but really now, wouldn’t you rather read the books? I would.
My first edition of Conroy’s My Reading Life doesn’t sport the owner’s name yet, but it is heavily underlined. On occasion I shall reread the underlined parts and skip the rest. These flagged gems have mainly to do with writing, and certainly with unique thoughts about books and life.
♥
Below this blog you will find three other new ones. You perhaps should read them in chronological order. My time has gone into other duties for a few days, leaving me with no suitable occasion for blogging. Nor have I read a great deal. I’m still reading George W. Bush’s Decision Points and am half through Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life. More about those later.
As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy buying first editions, but am no collector of them. Conroy says that when the buyer signs his name in a first edition, it is anathema to the collector. The entire publication must be pristine to be valuable in the “priceless” category. In other words, the collectors don’t read these books. They don’t necessarily read anything, but just collect. Such volumes can, of course, decorate a room with their artistic appearance (temperature-controlled room, of course), just as collectible art does on walls, but really now, wouldn’t you rather read the books? I would.
My first edition of Conroy’s My Reading Life doesn’t sport the owner’s name yet, but it is heavily underlined. On occasion I shall reread the underlined parts and skip the rest. These flagged gems have mainly to do with writing, and certainly with unique thoughts about books and life.
♥
Three Darling Little Boys
The disappearance of three little brothers a few days ago doesn’t leave my mind. When I first read about this on my computer, I went into a grief mode, for the story from the father didn’t ring true to me. Now he has been arrested. But he gets a trial, you know, as is our custom in this country. I pray the children are somewhere safe from harm.
Their faces on the monitor were precious. They all looked sweet and highly intelligent. An eagerness, for fun perhaps, sparkled in their eyes. Later I saw a photo of the mother. They looked much like her. Could this be a clue? That’s the writer in me talking.
♥
The disappearance of three little brothers a few days ago doesn’t leave my mind. When I first read about this on my computer, I went into a grief mode, for the story from the father didn’t ring true to me. Now he has been arrested. But he gets a trial, you know, as is our custom in this country. I pray the children are somewhere safe from harm.
Their faces on the monitor were precious. They all looked sweet and highly intelligent. An eagerness, for fun perhaps, sparkled in their eyes. Later I saw a photo of the mother. They looked much like her. Could this be a clue? That’s the writer in me talking.
♥
Another Nice Guy
Yesterday my computer tech, James, came out to make an adjustment on Pete, my computer, and we had a refreshing visit, as always. When he came here a week before, he was dreading Thanksgiving, for his family made such a fizzle of getting together, he said. He spoke of several emergencies his business was handling at the moment and we agreed he’d go to them and work on Pete later, for my case was not an emergency.
Yesterday was an entirely different kind of day for him. The Thanksgiving gathering at his house turned out to be a great success. He, a single guy so far, cooked the meal himself, and everyone behaved well. When he finished with Pete, he wouldn’t take any pay. He said, because I’d let him off the week before to take care of some emergencies! However, he told me the money was rolling in, just “dropping from the sky.” While his staff was still on duty, he now headed for a workout with his personal trainer. James has always seemed like a grandson to me, and I get a hug when he leaves here.
♥
Yesterday my computer tech, James, came out to make an adjustment on Pete, my computer, and we had a refreshing visit, as always. When he came here a week before, he was dreading Thanksgiving, for his family made such a fizzle of getting together, he said. He spoke of several emergencies his business was handling at the moment and we agreed he’d go to them and work on Pete later, for my case was not an emergency.
Yesterday was an entirely different kind of day for him. The Thanksgiving gathering at his house turned out to be a great success. He, a single guy so far, cooked the meal himself, and everyone behaved well. When he finished with Pete, he wouldn’t take any pay. He said, because I’d let him off the week before to take care of some emergencies! However, he told me the money was rolling in, just “dropping from the sky.” While his staff was still on duty, he now headed for a workout with his personal trainer. James has always seemed like a grandson to me, and I get a hug when he leaves here.
♥
Good Neighbors
Around 4:30 this morning, I awoke to too much light in my room and got up to see if I’d left on too many outside bulbs. I had not, but the streetlights on the fresh snow could have posed for a Christmas card. I supposed it might still be snowing and apparently was, for it’s deep enough today to keep school buses from running. (I haven’t checked on that, but from experience as a teacher, my guess is “closed.”) On the horizontal board across my wooden fence around the backyard the snow looks at least eight inches deep from my kitchen window. It surely must be less than that.
I am most fortunate to have a neighbor who clears my driveway and front terrace along with the public sidewalk, but so far today, that hasn’t happened. I recall one year he did this job on his lunch hour. So, that may happen yet.
Another nice neighbor brings me my mail from the outside mailbox. He and his wife don’t want me falling out there. Guess what. I don’t want to fall either. It’s really wonderful to have such neighbors, and I remember them at Christmas with a token of my appreciation. May God bless everyone who helps a neighbor in such circumstances.
♥
Around 4:30 this morning, I awoke to too much light in my room and got up to see if I’d left on too many outside bulbs. I had not, but the streetlights on the fresh snow could have posed for a Christmas card. I supposed it might still be snowing and apparently was, for it’s deep enough today to keep school buses from running. (I haven’t checked on that, but from experience as a teacher, my guess is “closed.”) On the horizontal board across my wooden fence around the backyard the snow looks at least eight inches deep from my kitchen window. It surely must be less than that.
I am most fortunate to have a neighbor who clears my driveway and front terrace along with the public sidewalk, but so far today, that hasn’t happened. I recall one year he did this job on his lunch hour. So, that may happen yet.
Another nice neighbor brings me my mail from the outside mailbox. He and his wife don’t want me falling out there. Guess what. I don’t want to fall either. It’s really wonderful to have such neighbors, and I remember them at Christmas with a token of my appreciation. May God bless everyone who helps a neighbor in such circumstances.
♥
Saturday, November 27, 2010
What Is Spell Check for, Anyway?
Recently I Googled the name of a person I’d never heard of before, and found an interesting comment, not the least bit enlightening. The researched name appeared in the dedication of a book, but in a rather mysterious way. I just wanted to know why. The comment I located accused this author, whom I was reading, of “plazerising” someone else’s work, possibly in a memoir. The least one can do in accusing another of plagiarizing is to spell the word right.
The name I looked up had only one notation of its use. That was in the dedication in the book I was reading. More mysterious than ever. Life stories can be complicated.
♥
Recently I Googled the name of a person I’d never heard of before, and found an interesting comment, not the least bit enlightening. The researched name appeared in the dedication of a book, but in a rather mysterious way. I just wanted to know why. The comment I located accused this author, whom I was reading, of “plazerising” someone else’s work, possibly in a memoir. The least one can do in accusing another of plagiarizing is to spell the word right.
The name I looked up had only one notation of its use. That was in the dedication in the book I was reading. More mysterious than ever. Life stories can be complicated.
♥
Friday, November 26, 2010
Black Friday
Black Friday seems well-named. Sixty million people reportedly went shopping, stood in long lines, some even trampled other shoppers, bought the bargains they planned to buy, and then bought higher-priced items they hadn’t planned to buy. The stores had planned that. Perhaps the most foolish aspect was a remark by one buyer, “The recession is over.” The lame-duck Congress has not yet voted on the Bush tax cuts. That shopper may have a big surprise in his first pay check of 2011. No one could have paid me enough money to send me shopping today.
♥
Black Friday seems well-named. Sixty million people reportedly went shopping, stood in long lines, some even trampled other shoppers, bought the bargains they planned to buy, and then bought higher-priced items they hadn’t planned to buy. The stores had planned that. Perhaps the most foolish aspect was a remark by one buyer, “The recession is over.” The lame-duck Congress has not yet voted on the Bush tax cuts. That shopper may have a big surprise in his first pay check of 2011. No one could have paid me enough money to send me shopping today.
♥
Only Your Hairdresser Knows
At the supermarket last Wednesday to buy my weekly list of items, I was in line behind a short, white-haired lady, when I saw the cashier give the woman her receipt, saying to her, “Now stay warm!” (Our temp registered in the twenties.) I wondered if she would tell me to stay warm. When she handed me my receipt, she said, “Happy Thanksgiving!” So I decided I wasn’t old. The customer ahead of me could have been ten or more years younger than I, but I’d just had my hair done, and my stylist keeps it blond as it used to be. I hope you had a memory-making Thanksgiving too.
♥
At the supermarket last Wednesday to buy my weekly list of items, I was in line behind a short, white-haired lady, when I saw the cashier give the woman her receipt, saying to her, “Now stay warm!” (Our temp registered in the twenties.) I wondered if she would tell me to stay warm. When she handed me my receipt, she said, “Happy Thanksgiving!” So I decided I wasn’t old. The customer ahead of me could have been ten or more years younger than I, but I’d just had my hair done, and my stylist keeps it blond as it used to be. I hope you had a memory-making Thanksgiving too.
♥
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Almost Unbelievable
Today I heard something on television that astounded me. Perhaps everyone else knew but me—again. I try my best not to keep up with everything, just 95% of it.
I do not know what country the newsman was talking about, but one of those “over there,” perhaps Afghanistan. The gist was the citizens of the country mentioned do not even know about our twin towers being hit by terrorists. I wonder why they think our troops are there.
George W. Bush’s Decision Points reveals what a primitive society Afghanistan is. So, I can readily believe they never heard about our plight. I might add, in this Age of Information too. So long as there is a country with such lack of information, we should not brag about our own stroke of privilege.
♥
Today I heard something on television that astounded me. Perhaps everyone else knew but me—again. I try my best not to keep up with everything, just 95% of it.
I do not know what country the newsman was talking about, but one of those “over there,” perhaps Afghanistan. The gist was the citizens of the country mentioned do not even know about our twin towers being hit by terrorists. I wonder why they think our troops are there.
George W. Bush’s Decision Points reveals what a primitive society Afghanistan is. So, I can readily believe they never heard about our plight. I might add, in this Age of Information too. So long as there is a country with such lack of information, we should not brag about our own stroke of privilege.
♥
Another Threat
Two duffel bags this time, with a Nigerian identification, at Logan Airport, Boston. At the moment, being checked out. The hero was a dog trained to sniff for potential weapons. This Thanksgiving Day we should remember these canines and their handlers, and give thanks for them. And further thanks for the human beings trained to open those duffel bags. They are all heroes in my book.
♥
Two duffel bags this time, with a Nigerian identification, at Logan Airport, Boston. At the moment, being checked out. The hero was a dog trained to sniff for potential weapons. This Thanksgiving Day we should remember these canines and their handlers, and give thanks for them. And further thanks for the human beings trained to open those duffel bags. They are all heroes in my book.
♥
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Royal Wedding
With the British economy the way it currently is, wouldn’t it be wise if the cost of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s April wedding were trimmed a bit? The press’s quoted sum of $20 to $40 million for the event perhaps does not seem so much when we daily hear about trillions, but for the average British subject it must seem excessive. Fewer seed pearls on Kate’s gown wouldn’t be missed. Their cost is only a drop in the bucket, but they do have to be sewn on by hand, which means hours of paid work. Her engagement ring didn’t cost anything, for it was Princess Diana’s gorgeous sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Now, if they could just cut out the expense of all those big hats Kate has already begun to wear, that might save a bundle. If she must wear the hats (each only once perhaps?), how about some designs that suit her personality? Five months older than William, she is nevertheless still quite young. All she needs on her pretty head is a tiara.
Cutting the cost of this wedding just might endear the new princess to the whole world’s people sooner than anything else she might do.
♥
With the British economy the way it currently is, wouldn’t it be wise if the cost of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s April wedding were trimmed a bit? The press’s quoted sum of $20 to $40 million for the event perhaps does not seem so much when we daily hear about trillions, but for the average British subject it must seem excessive. Fewer seed pearls on Kate’s gown wouldn’t be missed. Their cost is only a drop in the bucket, but they do have to be sewn on by hand, which means hours of paid work. Her engagement ring didn’t cost anything, for it was Princess Diana’s gorgeous sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Now, if they could just cut out the expense of all those big hats Kate has already begun to wear, that might save a bundle. If she must wear the hats (each only once perhaps?), how about some designs that suit her personality? Five months older than William, she is nevertheless still quite young. All she needs on her pretty head is a tiara.
Cutting the cost of this wedding just might endear the new princess to the whole world’s people sooner than anything else she might do.
♥
Friday, November 19, 2010
It’s Hilarious!
With regard to my blog about “chest of drawers” and “Chester drawers,” I received some interesting response. Perhaps everyone else in the country but me knew there was a song writer, entertainer, and comedian who goes by the name Chester Drawers. I don’t think Eddie Bowman would have chosen that name for himself, if he hadn’t concluded the same thing I had, that it was ridiculously funny.
Wikipedia acknowledges “chester drawers” (no caps!) as a North American expression. However, the phrase does not appear in English Through the Ages. That source does show “chest of drawers” came into use in the year 1650. Good idea to remember this, in case you’re ever on the Jeopardy show.
♥
With regard to my blog about “chest of drawers” and “Chester drawers,” I received some interesting response. Perhaps everyone else in the country but me knew there was a song writer, entertainer, and comedian who goes by the name Chester Drawers. I don’t think Eddie Bowman would have chosen that name for himself, if he hadn’t concluded the same thing I had, that it was ridiculously funny.
Wikipedia acknowledges “chester drawers” (no caps!) as a North American expression. However, the phrase does not appear in English Through the Ages. That source does show “chest of drawers” came into use in the year 1650. Good idea to remember this, in case you’re ever on the Jeopardy show.
♥
Monday, November 15, 2010
Was Billy Graham Joking?
On page 31 of George W. Bush’s Decision Points, he tells about a family gathering of about thirty persons at his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine, at which Billy Graham was also a guest. The senior George asked Graham to answer questions from the family about what being a Christian means. Graham talked about the “being born-again experience.” Then George, senior, said his mother, sitting there, had never had a born-again experience, yet she was the most religious one of them, and was kind. Graham replied in direct quotation that some people need the born-again experience to know God, but some are born Christian. Perhaps his mother was a born Christian, he said.
Is this what Billy Graham really believes? Surely not, for the Christian religion doesn’t teach that. It teaches everyone is born in sin and must make the choice to be a Christian or not. And it was too serious a subject to joke about. I imagine he will receive some criticism for this. I'm just reporting; you decide.
♥
On page 31 of George W. Bush’s Decision Points, he tells about a family gathering of about thirty persons at his parents’ home in Kennebunkport, Maine, at which Billy Graham was also a guest. The senior George asked Graham to answer questions from the family about what being a Christian means. Graham talked about the “being born-again experience.” Then George, senior, said his mother, sitting there, had never had a born-again experience, yet she was the most religious one of them, and was kind. Graham replied in direct quotation that some people need the born-again experience to know God, but some are born Christian. Perhaps his mother was a born Christian, he said.
Is this what Billy Graham really believes? Surely not, for the Christian religion doesn’t teach that. It teaches everyone is born in sin and must make the choice to be a Christian or not. And it was too serious a subject to joke about. I imagine he will receive some criticism for this. I'm just reporting; you decide.
♥
Sunday, November 14, 2010
George W. Bush Interviews
By this date, I’ve seen several interviews with George W. Bush (with one to go) promoting his recently published Decision Points. While they all differed in types of venue, the interviews did have something striking in common. All the interviewers asked about the president’s once considering getting rid of Vice President Dick Cheney. It seemed as if the journalists chose the most controversial personal episode they could find, perhaps without having read the entire book. I heard only one of them say he’d read the whole thing. Another point they all covered was the conversation Bush had with a woman of fifty years of age by whom he once sat when he was forty. I'm not talking about that.
It’s possible many viewers will remember the above two items at the expense of everything else in the book. But I want to tell you some more important statements worth remembering. Bush stated he had never compromised his principles in making decisions. I believe he meant that. He also said he did not believe an out-going president should criticize his successor. Although I did not hear this, I’m sure he must also believe that a sitting president should not criticize his predecessor. I don’t think the journalists would ask him about that.
Such considerations as these latter views show the real man, not the two sensational references in the first paragraph above. He also expressed great love and admiration for his parents. His book is dedicated “To the loves of my life: Laura, Barbara, and Jenna.” He didn’t seem too bothered about criticism thrown his way, but said he’d wait for history to assess his role as president. My humble prediction says history will regard him much more highly than many now anticipate.
At Barnes & Noble, I purchased the book, but also inquired about the Limited Edition that B&N had advertised on the Net and learned those copies are not out yet. They will cost $350 each. So, of course, I preordered a dozen of those to give as Christmas presents. [Here’s hoping my readers remember what a joker I am.]
Therefore, Decision Points has become one of the three books I’m reading now, replacing the finished Grisham’s.
♥
By this date, I’ve seen several interviews with George W. Bush (with one to go) promoting his recently published Decision Points. While they all differed in types of venue, the interviews did have something striking in common. All the interviewers asked about the president’s once considering getting rid of Vice President Dick Cheney. It seemed as if the journalists chose the most controversial personal episode they could find, perhaps without having read the entire book. I heard only one of them say he’d read the whole thing. Another point they all covered was the conversation Bush had with a woman of fifty years of age by whom he once sat when he was forty. I'm not talking about that.
It’s possible many viewers will remember the above two items at the expense of everything else in the book. But I want to tell you some more important statements worth remembering. Bush stated he had never compromised his principles in making decisions. I believe he meant that. He also said he did not believe an out-going president should criticize his successor. Although I did not hear this, I’m sure he must also believe that a sitting president should not criticize his predecessor. I don’t think the journalists would ask him about that.
Such considerations as these latter views show the real man, not the two sensational references in the first paragraph above. He also expressed great love and admiration for his parents. His book is dedicated “To the loves of my life: Laura, Barbara, and Jenna.” He didn’t seem too bothered about criticism thrown his way, but said he’d wait for history to assess his role as president. My humble prediction says history will regard him much more highly than many now anticipate.
At Barnes & Noble, I purchased the book, but also inquired about the Limited Edition that B&N had advertised on the Net and learned those copies are not out yet. They will cost $350 each. So, of course, I preordered a dozen of those to give as Christmas presents. [Here’s hoping my readers remember what a joker I am.]
Therefore, Decision Points has become one of the three books I’m reading now, replacing the finished Grisham’s.
♥
Saturday, November 13, 2010
John Grisham
Grisham has done it again, written a terrific thriller that will make an excellent movie. The Confession may bring you to tears, as it did me, but I guarantee it will make you fighting mad. I will not give away the story here, of course.
Grisham writes in his “Author’s Note” that he loathes doing research, but he has depended on a few people for their expertise in certain areas. He advises us to save paper and not write to him about his errors. He anticipates they are insignificant. And they are, if they are there. The only point I wondered about was the timing of rigor mortis. It seemed to be complete a bit early. However, it’s quite possible I miscalculated the time. Nevertheless, it didn’t make a bit of difference to my being absolutely intrigued by the story.
John Grisham has been accused of not writing well. He may be the first to say so, too. I once read some teacher he had (probably one of those traditional high school English teachers; now remember, I was one of those) told him he’d never amount to anything. I don’t know if that is true or not true, but if it had to do with his writing in school, she must have meant he did not write in a literary style. If so, she was right. He doesn’t write that way, hardly ever offers a figure of speech. You don’t read a paragraph of his and say, “What gorgeous prose.” But he gets my vote for being one of the very best storytellers in the English language. I read a scene and say, “What great plotting!” If the author makes me cry, he has succeeded in a big way. The Confession kept me reading till almost 3:00 this morning, and I still didn’t want to go to bed even then. Do I need to add, I recommend this book? I certainly do recommend it, and I trust, if the facts are accurate, the state (in the Union) portrayed will amend its ways.
♥
Grisham has done it again, written a terrific thriller that will make an excellent movie. The Confession may bring you to tears, as it did me, but I guarantee it will make you fighting mad. I will not give away the story here, of course.
Grisham writes in his “Author’s Note” that he loathes doing research, but he has depended on a few people for their expertise in certain areas. He advises us to save paper and not write to him about his errors. He anticipates they are insignificant. And they are, if they are there. The only point I wondered about was the timing of rigor mortis. It seemed to be complete a bit early. However, it’s quite possible I miscalculated the time. Nevertheless, it didn’t make a bit of difference to my being absolutely intrigued by the story.
John Grisham has been accused of not writing well. He may be the first to say so, too. I once read some teacher he had (probably one of those traditional high school English teachers; now remember, I was one of those) told him he’d never amount to anything. I don’t know if that is true or not true, but if it had to do with his writing in school, she must have meant he did not write in a literary style. If so, she was right. He doesn’t write that way, hardly ever offers a figure of speech. You don’t read a paragraph of his and say, “What gorgeous prose.” But he gets my vote for being one of the very best storytellers in the English language. I read a scene and say, “What great plotting!” If the author makes me cry, he has succeeded in a big way. The Confession kept me reading till almost 3:00 this morning, and I still didn’t want to go to bed even then. Do I need to add, I recommend this book? I certainly do recommend it, and I trust, if the facts are accurate, the state (in the Union) portrayed will amend its ways.
♥
Sunday, November 7, 2010
It Pays to Read Novels in Your Childhood
When it comes to strange speech and the writing of it, some examples take the cake. Here’s one to give you a laugh.
Growing up, I’d heard the words dresser and chest as pieces of furniture in our household. But in novels I read chest of drawers and became familiar with the term. As an adult, I was shocked to see in print a reference to Chester drawers, and had to figure that one out. Here’s what I concluded:
In some northeast areas of this country the furniture was alluded to as chest o’ drawers. In the South, if you didn’t read novels, you might say chesta drawers. Any Bostonian knows that a final a is pronounced er, as in Cuber for Cuba. (JFK) Chester is a proper name. Ergo, it must be Chester drawers.
When I first mentioned this dummie error to a few friends, at least two of them said, “But isn’t that right?”
That reminds me of another one. The expression such as would have gone or would have been. When we speak informally, we are likely to say, would’ve, the contraction of would have. But many times this has been abused in writing with this version: would of as in would of been. Go figure.
♥
When it comes to strange speech and the writing of it, some examples take the cake. Here’s one to give you a laugh.
Growing up, I’d heard the words dresser and chest as pieces of furniture in our household. But in novels I read chest of drawers and became familiar with the term. As an adult, I was shocked to see in print a reference to Chester drawers, and had to figure that one out. Here’s what I concluded:
In some northeast areas of this country the furniture was alluded to as chest o’ drawers. In the South, if you didn’t read novels, you might say chesta drawers. Any Bostonian knows that a final a is pronounced er, as in Cuber for Cuba. (JFK) Chester is a proper name. Ergo, it must be Chester drawers.
When I first mentioned this dummie error to a few friends, at least two of them said, “But isn’t that right?”
That reminds me of another one. The expression such as would have gone or would have been. When we speak informally, we are likely to say, would’ve, the contraction of would have. But many times this has been abused in writing with this version: would of as in would of been. Go figure.
♥
Saturday, November 6, 2010
More Peanut Butter
Here’s a comment on my blog that came through e-mail. Enjoy!
"Paul [her husband] used to mix honey and butter with his. Elvis Presley liked peanut butter and mustard! I like sliced banana, but mainly, I just like to get a big glob on a spoon and eat it like a sucker."
Don't miss today's earlier blog below.
♥♥
Here’s a comment on my blog that came through e-mail. Enjoy!
"Paul [her husband] used to mix honey and butter with his. Elvis Presley liked peanut butter and mustard! I like sliced banana, but mainly, I just like to get a big glob on a spoon and eat it like a sucker."
Don't miss today's earlier blog below.
♥♥
Acting Awards
We have Oscar, Emmy, and Toni acting awards—and perhaps some unknown to me—but how about an Addie for advertisements on television? They could be highly entertaining with a little more effort. When I find one that is really clever, I can watch it repeatedly, but daily commercials about the same thing in the same non-entertaining way gets to be too much. I hit mute at that point. A really good ad currently running shows a lady sitting at a table with an antiques expert, copying, of course, a bit from Antique Road Show. The man has a colorful bird in his hand, and talks about its artistic qualities. One quickly realizes it’s not an animate creature. Then comes the time to put an evaluation on it. The expert says, “A bird in the hand is worth . . . two in the bush.” The lady becomes wide-eyed with surprise and says, “Really?” I love it. I could watch this one every day. That commercial is advertising Geico.
I bet you were already thinking of the Geico ads. They are certainly prize-worthy, with enough variety not to bore you. They would certainly give Cable One some real competition. Your part of the country could probably produce a cable ad of equal cleverness. Now that is just step one. Read on.
I advocate we should run all these clever commercials in the evening—say from 6:00 to 7:00 at the start, perhaps ending at a choice bedtime of fun for the little ones—and have adult viewers vote for the best of the week, but only one vote per computer. Even two or three computers in the household would not distort the voting too much so long as politicians aren’t guiding the project. There could be several honorable mentions for the week, several for the month, and eventually an Addie for the year, when the family gathers around to watch the best for a couple of hours. I don’t need to say this program should not include political campaigning, do I? Can’t you just see the gecko walking up to get his award, and making a quick, sassy speech, or sulking sweetly in a corner, if he doesn’t win?
Madison Avenue would surely work hard to produce these, for the Addie should be a large amount of money. And the big bonus: no running to the fridge for snacks to eat on the commercials.
P. S. I got this idea from Germany, not that I’ve been there, but students who lived there told me about it. The most popular television program of the evening, they said. Now to get entrepreneurs to read this. You talk it up, why not? Thanks.
♥
We have Oscar, Emmy, and Toni acting awards—and perhaps some unknown to me—but how about an Addie for advertisements on television? They could be highly entertaining with a little more effort. When I find one that is really clever, I can watch it repeatedly, but daily commercials about the same thing in the same non-entertaining way gets to be too much. I hit mute at that point. A really good ad currently running shows a lady sitting at a table with an antiques expert, copying, of course, a bit from Antique Road Show. The man has a colorful bird in his hand, and talks about its artistic qualities. One quickly realizes it’s not an animate creature. Then comes the time to put an evaluation on it. The expert says, “A bird in the hand is worth . . . two in the bush.” The lady becomes wide-eyed with surprise and says, “Really?” I love it. I could watch this one every day. That commercial is advertising Geico.
I bet you were already thinking of the Geico ads. They are certainly prize-worthy, with enough variety not to bore you. They would certainly give Cable One some real competition. Your part of the country could probably produce a cable ad of equal cleverness. Now that is just step one. Read on.
I advocate we should run all these clever commercials in the evening—say from 6:00 to 7:00 at the start, perhaps ending at a choice bedtime of fun for the little ones—and have adult viewers vote for the best of the week, but only one vote per computer. Even two or three computers in the household would not distort the voting too much so long as politicians aren’t guiding the project. There could be several honorable mentions for the week, several for the month, and eventually an Addie for the year, when the family gathers around to watch the best for a couple of hours. I don’t need to say this program should not include political campaigning, do I? Can’t you just see the gecko walking up to get his award, and making a quick, sassy speech, or sulking sweetly in a corner, if he doesn’t win?
Madison Avenue would surely work hard to produce these, for the Addie should be a large amount of money. And the big bonus: no running to the fridge for snacks to eat on the commercials.
P. S. I got this idea from Germany, not that I’ve been there, but students who lived there told me about it. The most popular television program of the evening, they said. Now to get entrepreneurs to read this. You talk it up, why not? Thanks.
♥
Friday, November 5, 2010
Peanut Butter
Yesterday, on my day out, I did not go into a bookstore! That had almost become a weekly habit, when I have many, many books already on hand to read. I recently read three books at the same time, and am now into three others. The custom is to read a little in each one at night; then when one gets to the place where I can’t put it down, I finish that one first. Then it doesn’t take long to finish the other two. The one I’m into the most right now is U. S. Senator Lamar Alexander’s Six Months Off. Guess what the Senator ate as a child.
Have you ever tried a sandwich made with peanut butter, mayonnaise, and lettuce? Doesn’t that sound unappetizing? Well, that’s what Senator Alexander ate as a child. And he apparently still likes it, for in his book, he makes such a sandwich when he takes a day off and goes to the family’s cabin, soon after his term as governor of Tennessee expires.
People do funny things with peanut butter. Some mix it with sliced banana on a sandwich; others, with jelly. I like peanut butter with just cold sliced apple, without bread. Currently, my favorite method of eating peanut butter is a bit spread on Triscuit crackers. I suppose peanut butter is about as American as apple pie. I wonder if anyone has tried those two foods together. Why not? It makes as much sense as all the other ways. Of course, cheddar cheese probably got there first. And if you haven’t tried grated cheddar on your apple pie, popped into the microwave for a few seconds, you haven’t had the best apple pie. It’s delicious. Forget the ice cream. No one needs that.
Peanut butter is an excellent food to stock up on, against rainy days in the economy, like now. In case utilities fail or get rerouted (you never know), peanut butter doesn’t have to be cooked, lasts awhile without refrigeration after opening (buy the pint-size jar), and doesn’t need an electric can opener to make it accessible. It’s full of good nutrition and contains the good kind of fat we need.
Guess what I’ve decided to have for lunch. Right!
♥
Yesterday, on my day out, I did not go into a bookstore! That had almost become a weekly habit, when I have many, many books already on hand to read. I recently read three books at the same time, and am now into three others. The custom is to read a little in each one at night; then when one gets to the place where I can’t put it down, I finish that one first. Then it doesn’t take long to finish the other two. The one I’m into the most right now is U. S. Senator Lamar Alexander’s Six Months Off. Guess what the Senator ate as a child.
Have you ever tried a sandwich made with peanut butter, mayonnaise, and lettuce? Doesn’t that sound unappetizing? Well, that’s what Senator Alexander ate as a child. And he apparently still likes it, for in his book, he makes such a sandwich when he takes a day off and goes to the family’s cabin, soon after his term as governor of Tennessee expires.
People do funny things with peanut butter. Some mix it with sliced banana on a sandwich; others, with jelly. I like peanut butter with just cold sliced apple, without bread. Currently, my favorite method of eating peanut butter is a bit spread on Triscuit crackers. I suppose peanut butter is about as American as apple pie. I wonder if anyone has tried those two foods together. Why not? It makes as much sense as all the other ways. Of course, cheddar cheese probably got there first. And if you haven’t tried grated cheddar on your apple pie, popped into the microwave for a few seconds, you haven’t had the best apple pie. It’s delicious. Forget the ice cream. No one needs that.
Peanut butter is an excellent food to stock up on, against rainy days in the economy, like now. In case utilities fail or get rerouted (you never know), peanut butter doesn’t have to be cooked, lasts awhile without refrigeration after opening (buy the pint-size jar), and doesn’t need an electric can opener to make it accessible. It’s full of good nutrition and contains the good kind of fat we need.
Guess what I’ve decided to have for lunch. Right!
♥
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Where the Ideas Come From
My Journal has a notation of a friend’s asking me if I read a lot of mysteries for my story ideas. I do read as many good mysteries as I can cram into my 28-hour days, but certainly not for ideas for my own writing. Robin Cook’s suspense keeps me enthralled without my having a medical background. And John Grisham’s thrillers, without my having a legal background. Any writer knows a little about the medical and legal fields, just from everyday living, and one can easily do a little research. But it takes first-hand information or a depth of research to write a great book on any subject. My field is human nature, which I’ve been studying all my life. I can easily detect the male author who doesn’t know much about female characters. Most men cannot write well about women. By that I mean, getting into the thinking of the female brain. However, female writers seem to know male characters fairly well. After all, they probably married one, while husbands say into their old age, “I just don’t understand women.” We expect writers to be all-knowing, of course, and they should strive to present such an appearance. By almost constant research, knowingly or unknowingly. Learning all the time is what I mean.
One of the best-drawn male characters one can meet in modern crime fiction appears in a book I finished reading last night—rather at 2:00 this morning—Nicholas Sparks’s Safe Haven, which shows us a policeman who lives on vodka. I doubt that Sparks ever experienced anything of this sort in his own life. So, how did he know what to write in delineating this character? Most likely, by just looking at life he saw all around him, life he heard or read about, life he dreamed about, life he could imagine. Some people who ask where one gets ideas to write about seem to forget that powerful tool called imagination. A writer should be able to start a story by thinking, “I want a street scene in winter,” and see it in his mind instantly. That’s his imagination on tap.
I recommend Safe Haven, romantic literature to be sure, but one of the best in that category.
♥
My Journal has a notation of a friend’s asking me if I read a lot of mysteries for my story ideas. I do read as many good mysteries as I can cram into my 28-hour days, but certainly not for ideas for my own writing. Robin Cook’s suspense keeps me enthralled without my having a medical background. And John Grisham’s thrillers, without my having a legal background. Any writer knows a little about the medical and legal fields, just from everyday living, and one can easily do a little research. But it takes first-hand information or a depth of research to write a great book on any subject. My field is human nature, which I’ve been studying all my life. I can easily detect the male author who doesn’t know much about female characters. Most men cannot write well about women. By that I mean, getting into the thinking of the female brain. However, female writers seem to know male characters fairly well. After all, they probably married one, while husbands say into their old age, “I just don’t understand women.” We expect writers to be all-knowing, of course, and they should strive to present such an appearance. By almost constant research, knowingly or unknowingly. Learning all the time is what I mean.
One of the best-drawn male characters one can meet in modern crime fiction appears in a book I finished reading last night—rather at 2:00 this morning—Nicholas Sparks’s Safe Haven, which shows us a policeman who lives on vodka. I doubt that Sparks ever experienced anything of this sort in his own life. So, how did he know what to write in delineating this character? Most likely, by just looking at life he saw all around him, life he heard or read about, life he dreamed about, life he could imagine. Some people who ask where one gets ideas to write about seem to forget that powerful tool called imagination. A writer should be able to start a story by thinking, “I want a street scene in winter,” and see it in his mind instantly. That’s his imagination on tap.
I recommend Safe Haven, romantic literature to be sure, but one of the best in that category.
♥
Friday, October 29, 2010
Who Will Be Boss?
While we await the president’s speech in about an hour from now, regarding the escorted flight of a United Arab Emirates plane, originating in Yemen, and heading for JFK airport, I want to bring up an idea that is worth considering. Take a moment and think of all the countries the United States has come to the aid or rescue of since World War II, even those who were our enemies in wartime. Especially those. We should be thought of as everyone’s Big Buddy, shouldn’t we?
Now think of all the countries you can think of, that are fast gaining muscular power through scientific technology. And think of how time flies, and memories fade, and of people who would remember but who are now dead. We could eventually face an arsenal of small countries, with some banding together, such as Venezuela and Iran. Don’t kid yourself, they could do real damage. We citizens can only hope our government has protective measures in place.
But if we keep losing power, as we are now doing, losing respect from other countries, losing our leadership capacity, and disarming ourselves, exactly what do you see happening in the world? What other country could become the world’s leader, to replace us, and furnish rehabilitation of smaller countries from their plights? Think about it. There is no other. But the world as we know it today must have a boss country. The only benevolent nation in the world who is capable of being that boss is the United States of America. God has blessed America far beyond our worthiness. We have a job to do. We must endeavor to insure our rights to help us not to weaken our country any further. You can vote to help stop this trend to defeat ourselves, by voting next Tuesday. You know what to do. God bless America.
♥
While we await the president’s speech in about an hour from now, regarding the escorted flight of a United Arab Emirates plane, originating in Yemen, and heading for JFK airport, I want to bring up an idea that is worth considering. Take a moment and think of all the countries the United States has come to the aid or rescue of since World War II, even those who were our enemies in wartime. Especially those. We should be thought of as everyone’s Big Buddy, shouldn’t we?
Now think of all the countries you can think of, that are fast gaining muscular power through scientific technology. And think of how time flies, and memories fade, and of people who would remember but who are now dead. We could eventually face an arsenal of small countries, with some banding together, such as Venezuela and Iran. Don’t kid yourself, they could do real damage. We citizens can only hope our government has protective measures in place.
But if we keep losing power, as we are now doing, losing respect from other countries, losing our leadership capacity, and disarming ourselves, exactly what do you see happening in the world? What other country could become the world’s leader, to replace us, and furnish rehabilitation of smaller countries from their plights? Think about it. There is no other. But the world as we know it today must have a boss country. The only benevolent nation in the world who is capable of being that boss is the United States of America. God has blessed America far beyond our worthiness. We have a job to do. We must endeavor to insure our rights to help us not to weaken our country any further. You can vote to help stop this trend to defeat ourselves, by voting next Tuesday. You know what to do. God bless America.
♥
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Missed Opportunity
Many years ago, when our children were little, a front cover of Redbook Magazine showed a newly married couple in their wedding attire. Not the usual pose and pomp, but intriguing enough that I clipped the cover and kept it. It may be here still, somewhere in my “archives,” if you understand what I mean by that word, but I wouldn’t know just where to look for it. I wish I did. I’ve been tempted several times to write to Redbook, to ask for an update on this storybook marriage, for the bride was on the magazine staff. On an early page in that issue readers saw a sort of side view of her in her office. It must have been on that page that I read about the couple’s romance.
Both Americans, they met in a foreign country, attended school together there, and competed with each other to be tops in something, grades, I think. They were rivals rather than heart interests at that time. If my memory is correct, one of them defeated the other in running for class president, one of them was the child of missionaries, and the girl was somehow connected with the town of Caldwell, Idaho. Perhaps that’s where her family lived at the time of the wedding.
Again, if my memory is correct, the wedding picture showed her in a long, high-necked, long-sleeved light blue checked or flowered dress with a wide ruffle around the bottom of it. She held in her right hand a bouquet of flowers looking as if they had just been cut from the fields. They were standing in a field, I think. Her left hand was holding his right. He was tall, dressed in a striking black ensemble, including black boots, I think. He had black hair. Her hair was blond. They both beamed with happiness without the least hint of really posing.
It could have been a year or two after that wedding that my husband and I with our children were leaving The Ice Cream Palace at Westgate Mall in Boise, with me at the tail end of the line, when I looked up and saw this couple sitting in a booth, side by side, and as if waiting for others to join them. Still beaming with happiness, by the way. I wanted to stop to speak with them, but my family were egging me on to leave the place. To this very day, I am so sorry I did not speak to them.
What would I have said to them? Well, something like this: I know who you are. I saw you on Redbook and read your story. I think you are a wonderful pair. Have a good life together!
Why would I have said this to them? Because they were worthy of such attention. Much better than running after a rock star.
♥
Many years ago, when our children were little, a front cover of Redbook Magazine showed a newly married couple in their wedding attire. Not the usual pose and pomp, but intriguing enough that I clipped the cover and kept it. It may be here still, somewhere in my “archives,” if you understand what I mean by that word, but I wouldn’t know just where to look for it. I wish I did. I’ve been tempted several times to write to Redbook, to ask for an update on this storybook marriage, for the bride was on the magazine staff. On an early page in that issue readers saw a sort of side view of her in her office. It must have been on that page that I read about the couple’s romance.
Both Americans, they met in a foreign country, attended school together there, and competed with each other to be tops in something, grades, I think. They were rivals rather than heart interests at that time. If my memory is correct, one of them defeated the other in running for class president, one of them was the child of missionaries, and the girl was somehow connected with the town of Caldwell, Idaho. Perhaps that’s where her family lived at the time of the wedding.
Again, if my memory is correct, the wedding picture showed her in a long, high-necked, long-sleeved light blue checked or flowered dress with a wide ruffle around the bottom of it. She held in her right hand a bouquet of flowers looking as if they had just been cut from the fields. They were standing in a field, I think. Her left hand was holding his right. He was tall, dressed in a striking black ensemble, including black boots, I think. He had black hair. Her hair was blond. They both beamed with happiness without the least hint of really posing.
It could have been a year or two after that wedding that my husband and I with our children were leaving The Ice Cream Palace at Westgate Mall in Boise, with me at the tail end of the line, when I looked up and saw this couple sitting in a booth, side by side, and as if waiting for others to join them. Still beaming with happiness, by the way. I wanted to stop to speak with them, but my family were egging me on to leave the place. To this very day, I am so sorry I did not speak to them.
What would I have said to them? Well, something like this: I know who you are. I saw you on Redbook and read your story. I think you are a wonderful pair. Have a good life together!
Why would I have said this to them? Because they were worthy of such attention. Much better than running after a rock star.
♥
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Scorn, She Wrote, Even Pity
Last evening I tuned in to C-SPAN-2 and was immensely disappointed to find about four minutes remaining in an interview of Dr. Dinesh D’Souza about his new book The Roots of Obama’s Rage. The demeanor of the interviewer, someone I’d never seen before on any channel and whose name I do not know, amazed me. His attitude, including body language, was insulting, so far as I am concerned. While the book makes the point of the subject’s anti-colonialism and does so extremely well, this man had the audacity to say something like this, “But what about his health care plan?” The author went ahead, making the point he chose to make as time ran out. The interviewer ought to be fired. His face was dripping with pity for this author he must have deemed off his rocker. But Dr. D’Souza has produced a thorough study on the subject of which he writes and with complete documentation. His analysis of the problem discussed in the book and of the one who has the problem deserves a magnanimous award. I repeat what I said onblog October 10, “Every adult American should read The Roots of Obama’s Rage.”
♫ ♫ ♫
Less or Fewer
Several times during my career people have asked me which is correct: You have ten minutes or less to finish the test, or you have ten minutes or fewer to finish. Another example: I lack fifty pages or less finishing the book or fifty pages or fewer to finish. Whether minutes or pages, the answer is less. Try it with dollars. You can buy it anywhere for ten dollars or less. Would you say, ten dollars or fewer? Of course, not. The thing is, we are not thinking of minutes, pages, or dollars as individual parts, but all the minutes, pages, or dollars as units. A unit is less, not fewer.
♥
Last evening I tuned in to C-SPAN-2 and was immensely disappointed to find about four minutes remaining in an interview of Dr. Dinesh D’Souza about his new book The Roots of Obama’s Rage. The demeanor of the interviewer, someone I’d never seen before on any channel and whose name I do not know, amazed me. His attitude, including body language, was insulting, so far as I am concerned. While the book makes the point of the subject’s anti-colonialism and does so extremely well, this man had the audacity to say something like this, “But what about his health care plan?” The author went ahead, making the point he chose to make as time ran out. The interviewer ought to be fired. His face was dripping with pity for this author he must have deemed off his rocker. But Dr. D’Souza has produced a thorough study on the subject of which he writes and with complete documentation. His analysis of the problem discussed in the book and of the one who has the problem deserves a magnanimous award. I repeat what I said onblog October 10, “Every adult American should read The Roots of Obama’s Rage.”
♫ ♫ ♫
Less or Fewer
Several times during my career people have asked me which is correct: You have ten minutes or less to finish the test, or you have ten minutes or fewer to finish. Another example: I lack fifty pages or less finishing the book or fifty pages or fewer to finish. Whether minutes or pages, the answer is less. Try it with dollars. You can buy it anywhere for ten dollars or less. Would you say, ten dollars or fewer? Of course, not. The thing is, we are not thinking of minutes, pages, or dollars as individual parts, but all the minutes, pages, or dollars as units. A unit is less, not fewer.
♥
Saturday, October 23, 2010
My most Recent Book Purchases
On my Thursday out this week, I purchased two books of interest to some of you. One is a big volume of 819 pages of text in fine print and 90 pages of notes, prelude [sic], acknowledgements, and index, a total of 909 pages. It must weigh about ten pounds. It is Washington, A Life, by Ron Chernow.
Who is your favorite of our country’s presidents? I hope you all said “Washington.” Lincoln was a politician; Washington was a statesman. Recently I’ve been searching for the source of a quotation attributed to Washington but to no avail. It appeared in a speech or letter by Washington in the America Literature text used the first year I taught school. I haven’t seen that quotation since that time. According to the way the political times have gone, these words of this great man would have been removed from all textbooks, whether literature, history, government, whatever. College majors in political science might have run across this, but many of them would surely delete it themselves if they could. As I remember the words, they went exactly like this: “In order to plan for peace, we must be prepared for war.” You can’t read those words and not know they are the bare truth.
If you disagree with this man of wisdom, I beg you to read the small volume I recommended earlier, in my blog for October 10. Be sure and not miss the author’s conclusion in the last chapter, but the other chapters must lead the way.
It may take me five years to get through this tome, but just think of all that I shall learn. I forgot to mention, as you leaf through this work, you notice it’s all long, hard-packed paragraphs, with no dialogue. Think of that in fine print that looks like font size 8. If I go blind with this reading, know that it was in a search for truth.
The other book purchased is Our Kind of Traitor by that excellent espionage master John le Carré, only 306 pages of legibly sized font. I hope you keep reading too, a book for every outing you have, at least!
♥
On my Thursday out this week, I purchased two books of interest to some of you. One is a big volume of 819 pages of text in fine print and 90 pages of notes, prelude [sic], acknowledgements, and index, a total of 909 pages. It must weigh about ten pounds. It is Washington, A Life, by Ron Chernow.
Who is your favorite of our country’s presidents? I hope you all said “Washington.” Lincoln was a politician; Washington was a statesman. Recently I’ve been searching for the source of a quotation attributed to Washington but to no avail. It appeared in a speech or letter by Washington in the America Literature text used the first year I taught school. I haven’t seen that quotation since that time. According to the way the political times have gone, these words of this great man would have been removed from all textbooks, whether literature, history, government, whatever. College majors in political science might have run across this, but many of them would surely delete it themselves if they could. As I remember the words, they went exactly like this: “In order to plan for peace, we must be prepared for war.” You can’t read those words and not know they are the bare truth.
If you disagree with this man of wisdom, I beg you to read the small volume I recommended earlier, in my blog for October 10. Be sure and not miss the author’s conclusion in the last chapter, but the other chapters must lead the way.
It may take me five years to get through this tome, but just think of all that I shall learn. I forgot to mention, as you leaf through this work, you notice it’s all long, hard-packed paragraphs, with no dialogue. Think of that in fine print that looks like font size 8. If I go blind with this reading, know that it was in a search for truth.
The other book purchased is Our Kind of Traitor by that excellent espionage master John le Carré, only 306 pages of legibly sized font. I hope you keep reading too, a book for every outing you have, at least!
♥
Friday, October 22, 2010
Clint Eastwood and Heaven
According to my computer today, Clint Eastwood and a talk show host were discussing life after death, in connection with Eastwood’s new movie. “Hereafter,” I think it’s called. It seems they agreed on the idea that families would be reunited in heaven. If you know how to reach Eastwood, please drop him a line and explain to him the Christian religion promises no such thing as reuniting with families in heaven. Those who claim that should produce chapter and verse.
What heaven will be like need not be questioned. The point is, those who make it there will be totally happy, the happiest they’ve ever been. I have an acquaintance who once said she wouldn’t want to go to heaven and just sit on a cloud! Where do people get these ideas? That is utterly stupid. To find the truth in most subjects, such as a medical question, or a legal question, we consult authorities, whether in person or through research. The best research on the Bible is, of course, the Bible itself, with knowing the original languages the various parts were written in, if possible. Ministers of the Gospel are supposed to have done some studying of these languages; therefore, they should have some answers for those who have any questions about heaven.
I read one of these two men holding this discussion said that some people wouldn’t want to be reunited with their families in heaven, that their families were the ones who caused all their problems on earth.
I didn’t read far enough to learn what they thought about hell. That must have been interesting too, but I can take only so much of foolishness, ignorance, disdain, blasphemy, and related tripe. I do not intend to see the movie under discussion on the show.
♥
According to my computer today, Clint Eastwood and a talk show host were discussing life after death, in connection with Eastwood’s new movie. “Hereafter,” I think it’s called. It seems they agreed on the idea that families would be reunited in heaven. If you know how to reach Eastwood, please drop him a line and explain to him the Christian religion promises no such thing as reuniting with families in heaven. Those who claim that should produce chapter and verse.
What heaven will be like need not be questioned. The point is, those who make it there will be totally happy, the happiest they’ve ever been. I have an acquaintance who once said she wouldn’t want to go to heaven and just sit on a cloud! Where do people get these ideas? That is utterly stupid. To find the truth in most subjects, such as a medical question, or a legal question, we consult authorities, whether in person or through research. The best research on the Bible is, of course, the Bible itself, with knowing the original languages the various parts were written in, if possible. Ministers of the Gospel are supposed to have done some studying of these languages; therefore, they should have some answers for those who have any questions about heaven.
I read one of these two men holding this discussion said that some people wouldn’t want to be reunited with their families in heaven, that their families were the ones who caused all their problems on earth.
I didn’t read far enough to learn what they thought about hell. That must have been interesting too, but I can take only so much of foolishness, ignorance, disdain, blasphemy, and related tripe. I do not intend to see the movie under discussion on the show.
♥
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A Different Time, a Different Place
Today’s avid young readers would be surprised to learn a few generations ago the novel enjoyed no place in the reading habits of “decent” people in this country. The turning point might have been World War I, for times of war bring about changes, sometimes borrowings from other countries. Food dishes, for example, and fashions of dress. Since hardship introduces perhaps more time to read, for lack of money to spend doing anything else, this period was a choice time for the popular novel’s introduction to America. Not only was reading cheap, but also fiction was an excellent place to bury one’s own distress caused by the ravages of war. One could read about the make-believe hardships of others, which ended up with satisfactory solutions.
The plots of novels, like all literature, then and now, present a struggle between good and evil. This includes short stories as well. They must have conflict and by the end of the story, the hero must have worked out the problem by logical means. The villain is not defeated by a bolt of lightning, but by the superior cunning of his nemesis.
I read novels in my childhood, for romance serials came out in the daily newspaper. I could hardly wait for the next chapter and I remember well the plot of one of them called The Blue Door. (Do not compare these stories with today’s soap operas, for that just does not compute.) They could not be termed great literature, but had the power to keep kids off the street (but those kids might not have had access to the newspaper serials), to teach the young reader about human nature, and for the child itching to write, to further knowledge for the process of writing. I was reading them by age twelve or so.
My mother knew I read these romances, and possibly she might have read them herself, but in secret. She never questioned my selection of reading material, so long as she knew I read the Bible too. I was brought up on the King James Bible, a great advantage to understanding Shakespeare later, for it is the same style of language. But I didn’t study Shakespeare till ninth grade. However, the purpose of reading the Bible is not to enable one to understand Shakespeare. That just happens to be a by-product.
Eventually novel reading became standard procedure in schools. By the time I graduated from high school, I’d studied some great classics, among them Silas Marner, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Little Women, “The Gift of the Magi,” several short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and four Shakespearean plays; As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet. But the bulk of my reading came from the Carnegie Library, across the street from the high school. I walked the mile home with my arms full of books to read. Each night I read the newspaper serial, the library books, and did my Latin assignment, of course. And dreamed of becoming a novelist.
♥
Today’s avid young readers would be surprised to learn a few generations ago the novel enjoyed no place in the reading habits of “decent” people in this country. The turning point might have been World War I, for times of war bring about changes, sometimes borrowings from other countries. Food dishes, for example, and fashions of dress. Since hardship introduces perhaps more time to read, for lack of money to spend doing anything else, this period was a choice time for the popular novel’s introduction to America. Not only was reading cheap, but also fiction was an excellent place to bury one’s own distress caused by the ravages of war. One could read about the make-believe hardships of others, which ended up with satisfactory solutions.
The plots of novels, like all literature, then and now, present a struggle between good and evil. This includes short stories as well. They must have conflict and by the end of the story, the hero must have worked out the problem by logical means. The villain is not defeated by a bolt of lightning, but by the superior cunning of his nemesis.
I read novels in my childhood, for romance serials came out in the daily newspaper. I could hardly wait for the next chapter and I remember well the plot of one of them called The Blue Door. (Do not compare these stories with today’s soap operas, for that just does not compute.) They could not be termed great literature, but had the power to keep kids off the street (but those kids might not have had access to the newspaper serials), to teach the young reader about human nature, and for the child itching to write, to further knowledge for the process of writing. I was reading them by age twelve or so.
My mother knew I read these romances, and possibly she might have read them herself, but in secret. She never questioned my selection of reading material, so long as she knew I read the Bible too. I was brought up on the King James Bible, a great advantage to understanding Shakespeare later, for it is the same style of language. But I didn’t study Shakespeare till ninth grade. However, the purpose of reading the Bible is not to enable one to understand Shakespeare. That just happens to be a by-product.
Eventually novel reading became standard procedure in schools. By the time I graduated from high school, I’d studied some great classics, among them Silas Marner, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Little Women, “The Gift of the Magi,” several short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and four Shakespearean plays; As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Hamlet. But the bulk of my reading came from the Carnegie Library, across the street from the high school. I walked the mile home with my arms full of books to read. Each night I read the newspaper serial, the library books, and did my Latin assignment, of course. And dreamed of becoming a novelist.
♥
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The Writing and the Listening
Speaking of a writing world, I can attest to the fact it is a busy one. If one is writing a novel AND a nonfiction book at the same time, trying to post a blog daily—or just a few times a week—and entering writing contests, it is a full-time job. So, what comes first? At the moment, the nonfiction book comes first for me. The novel, which is closer to being finished, takes the brunt, although it is the most interesting on the list. Sometimes one opts to work on the manuscript easiest to finish, though the ending may be far away from where one is.
Other writers may be slaves, of course, to starting something, finishing it as quickly as possible, without looking at another idea. If that work fails, it’s a hard fall. But if another manuscript is already in progress before the first book gets accepted, that saves the day, and perhaps the year. Each writer must decide his method for himself, not necessarily heed what some book on writing proclaims as gospel.
My latest personal news in this territory (just as good a word as “category” here) is that my first novel is about to be distributed by Talking Books. These disks go to only the extremely vision-impaired and to those people unable to hold a book in their hands. So, it seems I will not hear my own book read aloud, at least by this program, and I trust, any time soon. My city has two large recording studios and 700 talking books are mailed out each day! The books my state handles this way are either by authors from my state or are books about the state. The rules are probably the same in all fifty states in the Union.
The plan is simple: the disk goes through the mail, locked in its own CD player. It cannot be played on any other device in the household. Its return necessitates merely that the postcard on the package be turned over. Voila! It’s ready to go, at no expense to the client.
Isn’t this a wonderful program? If you know someone with either of these handicaps, please alert them to the possibility they just might enjoy. More information at http://libraries.idaho.gov/ Click on Talking Book. I just checked this and it works easily. Have a great read!
♥
Speaking of a writing world, I can attest to the fact it is a busy one. If one is writing a novel AND a nonfiction book at the same time, trying to post a blog daily—or just a few times a week—and entering writing contests, it is a full-time job. So, what comes first? At the moment, the nonfiction book comes first for me. The novel, which is closer to being finished, takes the brunt, although it is the most interesting on the list. Sometimes one opts to work on the manuscript easiest to finish, though the ending may be far away from where one is.
Other writers may be slaves, of course, to starting something, finishing it as quickly as possible, without looking at another idea. If that work fails, it’s a hard fall. But if another manuscript is already in progress before the first book gets accepted, that saves the day, and perhaps the year. Each writer must decide his method for himself, not necessarily heed what some book on writing proclaims as gospel.
My latest personal news in this territory (just as good a word as “category” here) is that my first novel is about to be distributed by Talking Books. These disks go to only the extremely vision-impaired and to those people unable to hold a book in their hands. So, it seems I will not hear my own book read aloud, at least by this program, and I trust, any time soon. My city has two large recording studios and 700 talking books are mailed out each day! The books my state handles this way are either by authors from my state or are books about the state. The rules are probably the same in all fifty states in the Union.
The plan is simple: the disk goes through the mail, locked in its own CD player. It cannot be played on any other device in the household. Its return necessitates merely that the postcard on the package be turned over. Voila! It’s ready to go, at no expense to the client.
Isn’t this a wonderful program? If you know someone with either of these handicaps, please alert them to the possibility they just might enjoy. More information at http://libraries.idaho.gov/ Click on Talking Book. I just checked this and it works easily. Have a great read!
♥
Saturday, October 16, 2010
THE GIFT
One of the pleasures in the life of a writer is discovering among one’s many descendants, one of them has the gift for writing emergent in the early years. The same must be true in the life of the artist, when one’s child or grandchild dabbles with paints and turns out a masterpiece at age five. Need I mention Mozart? I am blest with an awareness of such genius among three generations of my descendants, in two of these areas, art and writing. And there was briefly a drummer, nine-tenths rhythm. Of course, we oldsters like to claim the credit in that “it came from me.” But I can think of no member of my forbears who was a writer in the creative writing sense. However, in the nineteenth century, some of them kept busy with diaries relating to their professions of law, medicine, or education, and some of those are available today in libraries. They composed and delivered speeches, wrote a voluminous number of letters, but if any of them wrote what was called the “dime novel,” they were closet writers.
But having the gift is just Part 1 of the story. It must be developed with practice and within certain acceptable ramifications, while at the same time the aspirant knows there are no rules for any artistic pursuit. I say this with some reservation. For example, the artist must understand true perspective, although he may wander far afield. The maestro or composer must know what true harmony is while he may present cacophony and gain standing ovations. The writer may be an exceptional oral storyteller, not alert to language structure well enough to set the stories to paper. But numerous ghostwriters stand waiting to help.
Anyone who excels in these realms knows the effort is hard work, but also enjoyable. Why follow a particular discipline that isn’t fun? It takes two-thirds of one’s life, and perhaps the other third at times, so why not choose an enjoyable sphere?
♥
One of the pleasures in the life of a writer is discovering among one’s many descendants, one of them has the gift for writing emergent in the early years. The same must be true in the life of the artist, when one’s child or grandchild dabbles with paints and turns out a masterpiece at age five. Need I mention Mozart? I am blest with an awareness of such genius among three generations of my descendants, in two of these areas, art and writing. And there was briefly a drummer, nine-tenths rhythm. Of course, we oldsters like to claim the credit in that “it came from me.” But I can think of no member of my forbears who was a writer in the creative writing sense. However, in the nineteenth century, some of them kept busy with diaries relating to their professions of law, medicine, or education, and some of those are available today in libraries. They composed and delivered speeches, wrote a voluminous number of letters, but if any of them wrote what was called the “dime novel,” they were closet writers.
But having the gift is just Part 1 of the story. It must be developed with practice and within certain acceptable ramifications, while at the same time the aspirant knows there are no rules for any artistic pursuit. I say this with some reservation. For example, the artist must understand true perspective, although he may wander far afield. The maestro or composer must know what true harmony is while he may present cacophony and gain standing ovations. The writer may be an exceptional oral storyteller, not alert to language structure well enough to set the stories to paper. But numerous ghostwriters stand waiting to help.
Anyone who excels in these realms knows the effort is hard work, but also enjoyable. Why follow a particular discipline that isn’t fun? It takes two-thirds of one’s life, and perhaps the other third at times, so why not choose an enjoyable sphere?
♥
Friday, October 15, 2010
When this blog transfers to the posting page and then to the blog page itself, these two lists will probably not look like lists. But they are starting out straight.
Believe It or Not
The cost of having a baby son in the USA about half a century ago:
Private Room @ $17.50 per day. . . . $70.00
Rooming-in Charge @ $7 per day . . . 28.00
Delivery Room . . . . . . 26.00
Anesthesia (two whiffs) . . . . . 12.00
Circumcision . . . . . . 6.00
Chest X-ray (routine) . . . . . 2.00
Laboratory (routine) . . . . . 8.00
Vitamin C & Iron . . . . . 1.00
ABDEC (vitamins for baby) . . . . 1.30
Telephone Calls . . . . . . .30
Physician’s fee (delivery & prenatal care) . . 85.00
Physician’s fee (circumcision). . . . 10.00
TOTAL $249.60
I don't know where the word "labels" came from and see no way to erase it.
Heart here.
Believe It or Not
The cost of having a baby son in the USA about half a century ago:
Private Room @ $17.50 per day. . . . $70.00
Rooming-in Charge @ $7 per day . . . 28.00
Delivery Room . . . . . . 26.00
Anesthesia (two whiffs) . . . . . 12.00
Circumcision . . . . . . 6.00
Chest X-ray (routine) . . . . . 2.00
Laboratory (routine) . . . . . 8.00
Vitamin C & Iron . . . . . 1.00
ABDEC (vitamins for baby) . . . . 1.30
Telephone Calls . . . . . . .30
Physician’s fee (delivery & prenatal care) . . 85.00
Physician’s fee (circumcision). . . . 10.00
TOTAL $249.60
I don't know where the word "labels" came from and see no way to erase it.
Heart here.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Tears, Happy Tears
The excitement continues, with scenes and sounds of jubilation. I missed seeing miners #s 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 land, but I want to tell you what # 18 did, in case you missed him. In this order, he removed his head gear, knelt, folded his hands in prayer, prayed, crossed himself, held up both arms, rose, and only then hugged his wife. He knew where his priorities lay. All the while, I sat there crying. Someone should write a book on the miners’ thoughts about God after this ordeal.
Shep Smith said a good one: the top moguls in the sports world and in Hollywood must be green with admiring envy over this production. This is one far above what either of those categories could ever achieve, but different too in the fact these 33 men have agreed to share equally all profits from books or whatever. I heard the Pope is watching some of this; North Korea is watching; over a billion people are watching. Honestly, how can anyone do or think of anything else while this miracle progresses? One reporter said last night, the date the last man is finally on the earth, instead if in it, will become a national holiday. President Sebastán Piñera has been present for most of the rescues, giving and getting obviously sincere hugs. Also the president’s wife. (The president’s popularity rating has skyrocketed too.)
When the last man is up, perhaps the cheering will be greater than the cheering when the first man landed.
♥
The excitement continues, with scenes and sounds of jubilation. I missed seeing miners #s 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 land, but I want to tell you what # 18 did, in case you missed him. In this order, he removed his head gear, knelt, folded his hands in prayer, prayed, crossed himself, held up both arms, rose, and only then hugged his wife. He knew where his priorities lay. All the while, I sat there crying. Someone should write a book on the miners’ thoughts about God after this ordeal.
Shep Smith said a good one: the top moguls in the sports world and in Hollywood must be green with admiring envy over this production. This is one far above what either of those categories could ever achieve, but different too in the fact these 33 men have agreed to share equally all profits from books or whatever. I heard the Pope is watching some of this; North Korea is watching; over a billion people are watching. Honestly, how can anyone do or think of anything else while this miracle progresses? One reporter said last night, the date the last man is finally on the earth, instead if in it, will become a national holiday. President Sebastán Piñera has been present for most of the rescues, giving and getting obviously sincere hugs. Also the president’s wife. (The president’s popularity rating has skyrocketed too.)
When the last man is up, perhaps the cheering will be greater than the cheering when the first man landed.
♥
Tears, Happy Tears
The excitement continues, with scenes and sounds of jubilation. I missed seeing miners #s 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 land, but I want to tell you what # 18 did, in case you missed him. In this order, he removed his head gear, knelt, folded his hands in prayer, prayed, crossed himself, held up both arms, rose, and only then hugged his wife. He knew where his priorities lay. All the while, I sat there crying. Someone should write a book on the miners’ thoughts about God after this ordeal.
Shep Smith said a good one: the top moguls in the sports world and in Hollywood must be green with admiring envy over this production. This is one far above what either of those categories could ever achieve, but different too in the fact these 33 men have agreed to share equally all profits from books or whatever. I heard the Pope is watching some of this; North Korea is watching; over a billion people are watching. Honestly, how can anyone do or think of anything else while this miracle progresses? One reporter said last night, the date the last man is finally on the earth, instead if in it, will become a national holiday. President Sebastán Piñera has been present for most of the rescues, giving and getting obviously sincere hugs. Also the president’s wife. (The president’s popularity rating has skyrocketed too.)
When the last man is up, perhaps the cheering will be greater than the cheering when the first man landed.
♥
The excitement continues, with scenes and sounds of jubilation. I missed seeing miners #s 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 land, but I want to tell you what # 18 did, in case you missed him. In this order, he removed his head gear, knelt, folded his hands in prayer, prayed, crossed himself, held up both arms, rose, and only then hugged his wife. He knew where his priorities lay. All the while, I sat there crying. Someone should write a book on the miners’ thoughts about God after this ordeal.
Shep Smith said a good one: the top moguls in the sports world and in Hollywood must be green with admiring envy over this production. This is one far above what either of those categories could ever achieve, but different too in the fact these 33 men have agreed to share equally all profits from books or whatever. I heard the Pope is watching some of this; North Korea is watching; over a billion people are watching. Honestly, how can anyone do or think of anything else while this miracle progresses? One reporter said last night, the date the last man is finally on the earth, instead if in it, will become a national holiday. President Sebastán Piñera has been present for most of the rescues, giving and getting obviously sincere hugs. Also the president’s wife. (The president’s popularity rating has skyrocketed too.)
When the last man is up, perhaps the cheering will be greater than the cheering when the first man landed.
♥
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A Super Wonderful Sight to See
What an exciting evening of television for the whole world! The first of the trapped Chilean miners—Florencio Avalos—has just been brought up to the surface after 69 days a half-mile deep into the earth. He looked great, happy, and healthy. I’d like to sit up all night and see others brought up. But the whole process will take more than 36 hours, we are told. As Shep Smith said, it just shows what faith, hope, and courage can bring about. How refreshing to hear reporters say, “Thank the good Lord above.” I say ditto to that. Continue to pray that the other 32 miners and the two medical doctors who went down to assist in the endeavor, will all be rescued safely and soon.
♥ 35 times
What an exciting evening of television for the whole world! The first of the trapped Chilean miners—Florencio Avalos—has just been brought up to the surface after 69 days a half-mile deep into the earth. He looked great, happy, and healthy. I’d like to sit up all night and see others brought up. But the whole process will take more than 36 hours, we are told. As Shep Smith said, it just shows what faith, hope, and courage can bring about. How refreshing to hear reporters say, “Thank the good Lord above.” I say ditto to that. Continue to pray that the other 32 miners and the two medical doctors who went down to assist in the endeavor, will all be rescued safely and soon.
♥ 35 times
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Obama’s Birth Date and Place
For over two years many Americans have questioned Barack Obama’s eligibility for election to the American presidency on the basis of the unrevealed proven location of his birth. Having spent his childhood and youth in Hawaii and Indonesia, he nevertheless seems to have left a paper trail for traveling on a non-American passport and registering as a foreign student for college financial assistance. These rumors may or may not be the truth, for he is a clever man, but it’s time to ignore them as rumors and read what someone has apparently found to be the truth.
Obama has a great deal in common with the author of the book I’m about to cite here. They were born the same year, finished college the same year, attended Ivy League colleges (different ones), and married the same year. The author, from India, is dark (but not black) and has a white wife. Obama is black (but not dark) and had a white mother. One went into politics; the other became a writer of politics. Dinesh D’Souza’s latest book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, relates on page 20, that two Hawaiian newspapers made mention of Obama’s birth on August 4, 1961, The Honolulu Sunday Advertiser and the Star Bulletin. That seems to settle the question.
But I would like to add my belief and that of many others that any American president preceding Obama would have, at the first inkling of doubt, offered proof of citizenship. But they didn’t need to. Their origins were already well known. Apple-pie American!
Every adult should read The Roots of Obama’s Rage. These 218 pages are well documented and the narrative is easy to read and understand.
♥
For over two years many Americans have questioned Barack Obama’s eligibility for election to the American presidency on the basis of the unrevealed proven location of his birth. Having spent his childhood and youth in Hawaii and Indonesia, he nevertheless seems to have left a paper trail for traveling on a non-American passport and registering as a foreign student for college financial assistance. These rumors may or may not be the truth, for he is a clever man, but it’s time to ignore them as rumors and read what someone has apparently found to be the truth.
Obama has a great deal in common with the author of the book I’m about to cite here. They were born the same year, finished college the same year, attended Ivy League colleges (different ones), and married the same year. The author, from India, is dark (but not black) and has a white wife. Obama is black (but not dark) and had a white mother. One went into politics; the other became a writer of politics. Dinesh D’Souza’s latest book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, relates on page 20, that two Hawaiian newspapers made mention of Obama’s birth on August 4, 1961, The Honolulu Sunday Advertiser and the Star Bulletin. That seems to settle the question.
But I would like to add my belief and that of many others that any American president preceding Obama would have, at the first inkling of doubt, offered proof of citizenship. But they didn’t need to. Their origins were already well known. Apple-pie American!
Every adult should read The Roots of Obama’s Rage. These 218 pages are well documented and the narrative is easy to read and understand.
♥
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Make ’em Cry!
Today I’ve chosen to copy a bit from my Journal, to show you how some things work in the world of a fiction writer. Not every fiction writer, of course. Most would not want this known about themselves perhaps, but those who are trying to write and not getting off the ground with it, may learn something here. Emotions in the characters are vital. But you don’t plant emotions in the lives of your characters, for they are already there. Just give the characters the chance to show you, the writer, and then the reader will feel the emotions too. Some writing expert’s advice is “Make ’em cry.” He is right.
Saturday, May 14, 2005, 11:49 a. m.
Last night I wrote the last two sentences to a story, knowing work on the manuscript was yet needed. I’d got through the first draft with two last good sentences, but the section right before those last two sentences was the problem area. Today I started at the beginning, deleting extraneous wordage as I went, when it struck me I hadn't cried during the writing of this one. That made me think it wasn't any good. I kept going, however, and when I got to the place just before those two last sentences, I wrote, I cried and my new father held me close to his heart. Then I bawled. From joy. That kept up for several hours. Every time I thought of that line, I cried again. It was like not wanting to see a dreadful sight but being drawn back to it anyway; I could not leave it alone. I was crying still when Mya got here to work in the yard. She thought something terrible was wrong, when everything was just right: my story had finally connected with my emotions; now it had a chance to connect with the reader. And I was ready to approach the third draft with greater confidence.
Back to today now.
My latest fiction reading was of a book which might have left the reader in tears, but I doubt it happened to any one of them. Lots of killing in it—unspeakable atrocities—mainly by the protagonist himself. That’s bad enough, but this man showed no emotion whatsoever. An anti-hero. I’m wondering if such storytellers are merely describing their own alter egos. While such stories draw in the reader, they can easily leave them cold. But Hollywood buys it. That’s why it’s written most likely, for, as you know, money is king.
May we all shed tears in the right places and laugh the rest of the time.
♥
Today I’ve chosen to copy a bit from my Journal, to show you how some things work in the world of a fiction writer. Not every fiction writer, of course. Most would not want this known about themselves perhaps, but those who are trying to write and not getting off the ground with it, may learn something here. Emotions in the characters are vital. But you don’t plant emotions in the lives of your characters, for they are already there. Just give the characters the chance to show you, the writer, and then the reader will feel the emotions too. Some writing expert’s advice is “Make ’em cry.” He is right.
Saturday, May 14, 2005, 11:49 a. m.
Last night I wrote the last two sentences to a story, knowing work on the manuscript was yet needed. I’d got through the first draft with two last good sentences, but the section right before those last two sentences was the problem area. Today I started at the beginning, deleting extraneous wordage as I went, when it struck me I hadn't cried during the writing of this one. That made me think it wasn't any good. I kept going, however, and when I got to the place just before those two last sentences, I wrote, I cried and my new father held me close to his heart. Then I bawled. From joy. That kept up for several hours. Every time I thought of that line, I cried again. It was like not wanting to see a dreadful sight but being drawn back to it anyway; I could not leave it alone. I was crying still when Mya got here to work in the yard. She thought something terrible was wrong, when everything was just right: my story had finally connected with my emotions; now it had a chance to connect with the reader. And I was ready to approach the third draft with greater confidence.
Back to today now.
My latest fiction reading was of a book which might have left the reader in tears, but I doubt it happened to any one of them. Lots of killing in it—unspeakable atrocities—mainly by the protagonist himself. That’s bad enough, but this man showed no emotion whatsoever. An anti-hero. I’m wondering if such storytellers are merely describing their own alter egos. While such stories draw in the reader, they can easily leave them cold. But Hollywood buys it. That’s why it’s written most likely, for, as you know, money is king.
May we all shed tears in the right places and laugh the rest of the time.
♥
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Hello, there!
Yesterday, for the first time, Pakistan appeared on the list of locations where my blog gets noticed, and I trust, read. Thirteen hits from that one place! The U. S. military there was my instant thought and hope. I can’t think who else. So today, I am writing directly to you. I sincerely hope some of you will make comment on my blog, and certainly sign up as a follower. I would be delighted to show your picture on this page. A picture of your face, your boot, your cap, or even a square of camouflage material. All would be most welcomed and appreciated. You don’t have to give your real name, if you’d rather not, but thanks loads for specifying you’re in Pakistan. I’d love it, if you will.
Millions upon millions of Americans support you in their thoughts, best wishes, and prayers. This country has much to complain about right now, but not about you guys and gals, and your courageous efforts on behalf of our country. I have no proof, but it must be true, the majority of Americans are quite concerned about the greatest country in the world’s rushing headlong into political suicide, without the average citizen’s having anything to say about it. But the average citizen can vote. The mid-term elections in November may get the Congress on the right path again, not that everything will be perfection after that. It won’t. But it can’t get worse than what it is now and many candidates for office have promised to turn things around if elected. Please don’t pay attention to those crackpots who write unfounded, sick diatribes on the Internet. They must have a lot of time to spend that way, while the more sensible ones, supporting you, stay busy at other things. We watch the news and hurt when we hear of American losses in any location they’re in.
God bless you all and thank you from our whole heart, not just from the bottom of it!
♥
Yesterday, for the first time, Pakistan appeared on the list of locations where my blog gets noticed, and I trust, read. Thirteen hits from that one place! The U. S. military there was my instant thought and hope. I can’t think who else. So today, I am writing directly to you. I sincerely hope some of you will make comment on my blog, and certainly sign up as a follower. I would be delighted to show your picture on this page. A picture of your face, your boot, your cap, or even a square of camouflage material. All would be most welcomed and appreciated. You don’t have to give your real name, if you’d rather not, but thanks loads for specifying you’re in Pakistan. I’d love it, if you will.
Millions upon millions of Americans support you in their thoughts, best wishes, and prayers. This country has much to complain about right now, but not about you guys and gals, and your courageous efforts on behalf of our country. I have no proof, but it must be true, the majority of Americans are quite concerned about the greatest country in the world’s rushing headlong into political suicide, without the average citizen’s having anything to say about it. But the average citizen can vote. The mid-term elections in November may get the Congress on the right path again, not that everything will be perfection after that. It won’t. But it can’t get worse than what it is now and many candidates for office have promised to turn things around if elected. Please don’t pay attention to those crackpots who write unfounded, sick diatribes on the Internet. They must have a lot of time to spend that way, while the more sensible ones, supporting you, stay busy at other things. We watch the news and hurt when we hear of American losses in any location they’re in.
God bless you all and thank you from our whole heart, not just from the bottom of it!
♥
Monday, October 4, 2010
Ted Kooser, Poet Extraordinaire
This yellow-walled study is cheery and cozy this morning while it’s wet outside from overnight rain. It’s the kind of day that makes you want to do nothing but read. Or go walking in the rain. How refreshing that is, depending on where you are, how you’re dressed, and how torrential the rain is.
This weather made me think of a certain book which may not have any rain in it, but I doubt that. It’s been a few years since I read Ted Kooser’s Local Wonders with its subtitle Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, but it’s one of the top ten best books I’ve ever read, perhaps the top five, perhaps three. (I shall read it again soon.) Kooser is a poet but he’s writing prose here. However, these 153 pages are filled with poetic gems. All readers should enjoy reading about this rural area in southeastern Nebraska that he calls home. That is, what the poet sees in this rural area, and that covers all the other senses as well. What beauty he uncovers in simple things, such as the trash collected around the base of a tree in the woods.
I first "met" Kooser several years ago when I came across a poem of his in a poetry magazine. I couldn’t let it go. I wrote to the editor about getting permission to republish it in a literary newsletter I edited at the time. Connection made, I did run his poem in the newsletter and sent him a copy of the publication, as he requested. If you want to look up this delightful poem, it’s just six lines called “Old Soldiers’ Home,” the whole thing a testimony to his magnificent mastery of figurative language. Too bad I don’t have permission to copy it here, but I don’t. You can find it in his Sure Signs, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980.
After that time Kooser wrote on, in spite of cancer, and became Poet Laureate consultant to the Library of Congress of the United States from 2004 to 2006.
Among the chief adjectives that describe the poetry of Ted Kooser is “accessible.” For those of you not into poetry, that merely means the reader can understand what the poet is talking about. Figurative language and humor are paramount. I just can’t praise enough this little volume of his prose. It would make a Christmas present of the highest order. You can get it from the University of Nebraska Press. Hardcover at $22.00.
♥
This yellow-walled study is cheery and cozy this morning while it’s wet outside from overnight rain. It’s the kind of day that makes you want to do nothing but read. Or go walking in the rain. How refreshing that is, depending on where you are, how you’re dressed, and how torrential the rain is.
This weather made me think of a certain book which may not have any rain in it, but I doubt that. It’s been a few years since I read Ted Kooser’s Local Wonders with its subtitle Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, but it’s one of the top ten best books I’ve ever read, perhaps the top five, perhaps three. (I shall read it again soon.) Kooser is a poet but he’s writing prose here. However, these 153 pages are filled with poetic gems. All readers should enjoy reading about this rural area in southeastern Nebraska that he calls home. That is, what the poet sees in this rural area, and that covers all the other senses as well. What beauty he uncovers in simple things, such as the trash collected around the base of a tree in the woods.
I first "met" Kooser several years ago when I came across a poem of his in a poetry magazine. I couldn’t let it go. I wrote to the editor about getting permission to republish it in a literary newsletter I edited at the time. Connection made, I did run his poem in the newsletter and sent him a copy of the publication, as he requested. If you want to look up this delightful poem, it’s just six lines called “Old Soldiers’ Home,” the whole thing a testimony to his magnificent mastery of figurative language. Too bad I don’t have permission to copy it here, but I don’t. You can find it in his Sure Signs, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980.
After that time Kooser wrote on, in spite of cancer, and became Poet Laureate consultant to the Library of Congress of the United States from 2004 to 2006.
Among the chief adjectives that describe the poetry of Ted Kooser is “accessible.” For those of you not into poetry, that merely means the reader can understand what the poet is talking about. Figurative language and humor are paramount. I just can’t praise enough this little volume of his prose. It would make a Christmas present of the highest order. You can get it from the University of Nebraska Press. Hardcover at $22.00.
♥
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Another Celebrity
My blog on meeting famous people at Sun Valley has received the most clicks of all my blogs to date. But whoever selects which ones are to reach more than a dozen other countries, has not opted for the series about my military service. Some political reason, do you suppose? I wonder what success the Company is having in selling its products through my blogs. Why don’t I get a percentage? Whatever, it's fun to see those countries' names in the list.
There’s another celebrity I’d like to tell you about, though there isn’t enough space in one blog. I shall leave you to the Internet to read more about her and the world-wide fame she eventually garnered. When Helen Keller came to Nashville to speak to the Legislature, my freshman classmate, Jessie Mae Mercer, and I skipped a college class to go to a hotel downtown where Keller stayed, and meet her. This was sometime after her first teacher Miss Anne Sullivan had died and another companion, Miss Polly Thomson, had joined her daily life.
At the age of 19 months, Keller was stricken with what was called at the time brain fever which left her both deaf and blind before she had begun to speak. When she was about six or seven, Miss Sullivan, who had been blind but who had regained some sight through operations, came to Keller’s home in Alabama and began a life of staying with Helen all the time and teaching her to read, write, speak, and behave. Keller became a writer (check the Internet) of books and articles for magazines. She graduated from Radcliffe College, received numerous awards during her lifetime, and eventually in her later years came to Nashville with Polly Thomson.
Jessie Mae and I went up to the hotel suite and found it full of guests meeting Keller. She shook hands with us, delighted to know we were students, speaking through her fingers dancing hieroglyphics in the hand of her companion who interpreted for us. She could also place her fingers on Thomson’s lips and read the spoken words. Later we received in the mail the requested autographs in manuscript writing, perfectly straight on an invisible line.
Helen Keller spent her life working for others, especially the blind, through her writings and speeches. She died at age 88, having shown the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith. Her life story won Oscars for actresses Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft in “The Miracle Worker.” A great DVD to pick up on your way home.
♥
My blog on meeting famous people at Sun Valley has received the most clicks of all my blogs to date. But whoever selects which ones are to reach more than a dozen other countries, has not opted for the series about my military service. Some political reason, do you suppose? I wonder what success the Company is having in selling its products through my blogs. Why don’t I get a percentage? Whatever, it's fun to see those countries' names in the list.
There’s another celebrity I’d like to tell you about, though there isn’t enough space in one blog. I shall leave you to the Internet to read more about her and the world-wide fame she eventually garnered. When Helen Keller came to Nashville to speak to the Legislature, my freshman classmate, Jessie Mae Mercer, and I skipped a college class to go to a hotel downtown where Keller stayed, and meet her. This was sometime after her first teacher Miss Anne Sullivan had died and another companion, Miss Polly Thomson, had joined her daily life.
At the age of 19 months, Keller was stricken with what was called at the time brain fever which left her both deaf and blind before she had begun to speak. When she was about six or seven, Miss Sullivan, who had been blind but who had regained some sight through operations, came to Keller’s home in Alabama and began a life of staying with Helen all the time and teaching her to read, write, speak, and behave. Keller became a writer (check the Internet) of books and articles for magazines. She graduated from Radcliffe College, received numerous awards during her lifetime, and eventually in her later years came to Nashville with Polly Thomson.
Jessie Mae and I went up to the hotel suite and found it full of guests meeting Keller. She shook hands with us, delighted to know we were students, speaking through her fingers dancing hieroglyphics in the hand of her companion who interpreted for us. She could also place her fingers on Thomson’s lips and read the spoken words. Later we received in the mail the requested autographs in manuscript writing, perfectly straight on an invisible line.
Helen Keller spent her life working for others, especially the blind, through her writings and speeches. She died at age 88, having shown the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith. Her life story won Oscars for actresses Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft in “The Miracle Worker.” A great DVD to pick up on your way home.
♥
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Reading the Fine Print
He does deal with banks—that character from yesterday—for he goes to an ATM and gets money out of it. Where does his money come from? He was in the Army about thirteen years but that doesn’t quality for a pension, does it? Doesn’t it take twenty years for that? But he does get out of his latest predicament but there surely could be repercussions yet. Only a man could have written this book. How daring!
So much for the exciting life of fiction. Now let’s get to real life and the fine print at every turn. For example, take a box of frozen entrée that is the only lunch you have time for—half a small di Giorno pizza, let’s say—and read the instructions. It’s white print on red background, readable and with illustrations, but when it comes to the timing for cooking it, what the prospective diner looks for, the print is quite a bit smaller and on a darker red area. With several digits below 10 looking much alike in fine print, one needs to keep a magnifying glass in the kitchen. (Better yet, not to eat the pizza.) The most important thing on the back of the box gets the least consideration.
A brochure comes in the mail, perhaps a booklet about something important to you. In large print in gorgeous color is the name of the company and its logo, if any. This may appear several times, to rub it in. Divisions in the print may have subheadings, also in gorgeous color. But when it comes to the important stuff, what you really need to read, you run into trouble. This is often presented in a soft pastel wording on a deeper shade of the same color. Black print is popular on a gray background. Or the print here just gets finer. This is utter nonsense and may be to misguide you. More time, energy, and cost go into such, in just showing a difference in design. The artistic touch is more important than the client’s need to know. The first requirement of language is for communication, not artistic beauty.
Take a look at your monthly credit card statement, if you still have a credit card. If you want to call the business about a mistake in the billing, where do you find the telephone number to call? If things are the way they used to be when I had several credit cards, the telephone number hides in a paragraph of fine print on the back of a page. It probably has to be there by law, but most such companies, if not all, specialize in diversion, to get you so rattled that you are in the mood not to call at all. That’s human nature in the business world. Some parts of the business world.
I’ve just looked again at a small brochure that came with my computer or some adjunct machine. It is totally unreadable, even with a magnifying glass. It is pale gray print on white and must be in font size “minus 20.” My technician could not handle it either. It’s a good thing this guy maintains everything about computers in his head. The pocket-size booklet is a standard license and warranty brochure and is going pronto into my cart of recyclables.
A postcard comes in the mail, advertising $50 off on window cleaning. You first search for the name of the company. By the time you locate that, in much smaller print, you have read all the propaganda more than once. That’s psychology misapplied, in my book.
There you have it. Fine print everywhere when you locate just what you are probably looking for. Now when I become president of this otherwise wonderful nation, I’ll be a dictator. That is, on the use of fine print. It won’t pass muster. Remember to vote for me. I’ll be about 100 years old then and will need all the help you can give me.
♥
He does deal with banks—that character from yesterday—for he goes to an ATM and gets money out of it. Where does his money come from? He was in the Army about thirteen years but that doesn’t quality for a pension, does it? Doesn’t it take twenty years for that? But he does get out of his latest predicament but there surely could be repercussions yet. Only a man could have written this book. How daring!
So much for the exciting life of fiction. Now let’s get to real life and the fine print at every turn. For example, take a box of frozen entrée that is the only lunch you have time for—half a small di Giorno pizza, let’s say—and read the instructions. It’s white print on red background, readable and with illustrations, but when it comes to the timing for cooking it, what the prospective diner looks for, the print is quite a bit smaller and on a darker red area. With several digits below 10 looking much alike in fine print, one needs to keep a magnifying glass in the kitchen. (Better yet, not to eat the pizza.) The most important thing on the back of the box gets the least consideration.
A brochure comes in the mail, perhaps a booklet about something important to you. In large print in gorgeous color is the name of the company and its logo, if any. This may appear several times, to rub it in. Divisions in the print may have subheadings, also in gorgeous color. But when it comes to the important stuff, what you really need to read, you run into trouble. This is often presented in a soft pastel wording on a deeper shade of the same color. Black print is popular on a gray background. Or the print here just gets finer. This is utter nonsense and may be to misguide you. More time, energy, and cost go into such, in just showing a difference in design. The artistic touch is more important than the client’s need to know. The first requirement of language is for communication, not artistic beauty.
Take a look at your monthly credit card statement, if you still have a credit card. If you want to call the business about a mistake in the billing, where do you find the telephone number to call? If things are the way they used to be when I had several credit cards, the telephone number hides in a paragraph of fine print on the back of a page. It probably has to be there by law, but most such companies, if not all, specialize in diversion, to get you so rattled that you are in the mood not to call at all. That’s human nature in the business world. Some parts of the business world.
I’ve just looked again at a small brochure that came with my computer or some adjunct machine. It is totally unreadable, even with a magnifying glass. It is pale gray print on white and must be in font size “minus 20.” My technician could not handle it either. It’s a good thing this guy maintains everything about computers in his head. The pocket-size booklet is a standard license and warranty brochure and is going pronto into my cart of recyclables.
A postcard comes in the mail, advertising $50 off on window cleaning. You first search for the name of the company. By the time you locate that, in much smaller print, you have read all the propaganda more than once. That’s psychology misapplied, in my book.
There you have it. Fine print everywhere when you locate just what you are probably looking for. Now when I become president of this otherwise wonderful nation, I’ll be a dictator. That is, on the use of fine print. It won’t pass muster. Remember to vote for me. I’ll be about 100 years old then and will need all the help you can give me.
♥
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