Monday, April 21, 2014

THEY'RE SORRY ABOUT THAT???

A retirement center is a good place to teach. The Residents teach, I mean. Teach the kitchen staff and the wait staff especially. Most of the Residents seem to have a serious memory loss, and when they complain about too much sugar in meals, and such mistakes, they forget their complaint by the time they leave the dining room. All except one Resident. Each day, I thank God for the excellent memory I was born with, inherited by both parents and also self-cultivated by a lifetime of crossword puzzles, voracious reading, and loads of Vitamin B-12, Vitamin B-6, Folic Acid and Concord grape juice. I learned about these aids for memory by READING. 

For example, the newish members of the wait staff are in the habit of saying "Sorry about that," to others, and not paying any attention to the statement.  This has not been said to me yet, but when it is said to me, if ever, I will give my sermon on it: The only way you can show you are sorry about this is never to make this mistake again

If I could teach the wait staff just this much while I'm here, it would be worthwhile. They need to learn to make such promises to themselves and then take them seriously.

Friday, April 18, 2014

IS THERE A SEQUEL TO MY 39 STEPS/NORTHWEST?

Every time I check the stats on my blogging, I am again surprised at the number of readers of THE 39 STEPS AND NORTH BY NORTHWEST. That blog is not showing you the two movies mentioned there, but is giving only my comparisons between them. This blog still heads the list with almost 450 pageviews to date which means only a limited time. It makes me wonder if some writing instructor is using it in his classes as an example of what the blog suggests. All right! Fine! I don't anticipate any teacher's letting me know how it worked, but wouldn't that be nice, if he did? Or she did? And if permission were given, wouldn't it be vice to copy that letter right here? 
KEEP A STIFF UPPER LIP

If you are young enough to be seeking a career, or a new career -- in television, in the film industry, singing, politics, or in any form of public speaking, including teaching, the ministry, or law -- it might be good to look at people in these areas and study their upper lips. Watch your favorites in television announcing. Why are they your favorites? Chances are they do not move their upper lip every time they take a half-breath, but only when they smile and show you their good dental work. If they keep their upper lip under control, you will pay more attention to what they are telling you. 

I have watched reporters who are out in the field, some place away from their channel's headquarters, and I find good-enough reporting, but often a very busy upper lip. This seems to be more common in the female reporters than in the males. In fact, perhaps the men in those locations are not so guilty because they want their locations for personal reasons, such as the Florida sun. The women might have gone along with their husbands in their jobs. 

Sometimes I wonder how some male reporters earn their salaries, for we do not see them often reporting. However, they may be reporting to other sources as well -- legally, I mean -- or maybe also salaried as a lookout for criminal offenders for the law. And of course, they learn much more in investigating their stories than we ever hear on television. We lay people do not know what all is behind the finished pictures we see.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

NO GREATER LOVE

For several nights the Easter Pageant NO GREATER LOVE is again performed at First Church of the Nazarene in Nampa, Idaho. Over 200,000 persons have seen it over the 33 years it has been presented. David Magnum has played the role of Christ for all those years. What a magnificent job he has done! A bus from here is taking those going tonight, but the driver tells me not enough have signed up to go to the event. They will never know what they missed. I do not plan to attend but I have seen it years ago.

Our Easter brunch is on Sunday and at some point there is an Easter Egg Hunt for children. Sounds like so much work without any regard for the real meaning of Easter. I wish everyone could attend NO GREATER LOVE. 

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

APPOINTMENTS AND PRINCE GEORGE

My calendar is filling up with appointments. Yesterday it was income tax business and what a relief that is to have off my shoulders. I have an appointment for a second opinion in the case of the eye that is now blind. She is the doctor who discovered a contact lens left in my eye for three years by the retina specialist after a treatment with the contact lens there to protect the eye, and then he forgot it. 

Once a month a cornea specialist comes to Boise from Salt Lake and I expect to see him on July 22. That seems so long to wait. At times I can see a little with that eye. At night, with the left eye closed, I can see my hand moving across my vision. At other times, I can see in the dark the images of furniture, doors, and windows, even books on the shelves, but this is not long-lasting. But with that much to see faintly, I think there is some doctor who can fix it.

Several other appointments are on the slate. 

Insomnia is still a problem. Everyone has a solution without getting the facts. The best advice has cone from my son Mike. I am sleeping sometimes six hours a night, but they are oft-and-on between 3:00 a. m., and 10:00, too late for lunch in the dining  room downstairs. I know, you could make it by that time, yes, but you are not considering the facts in my case, and I'm certainly not going into those at this time.

A lovelier sight for you to think about is that darling little Prince George who with his parents is touring Australia, New Zealand, and other places. That baby is so beautiful and intelligent-looking, he could be in our family! Sixth cousin, twice removed, shall be label him? No, our family left England to get away from the rule of Royalty. But this one is really a cutie. And he's only 3/4 Royal, isn't he? Maybe that's why he's so precious!

Sunday, April 13, 2014

DEMONIC -- ANN COULTER'S BOOK

DEMONIC is a book every adult ought to read. Now. Two days ago I took it to our Executive Director to lend it to her. She said, "I love Ann Coulter." I can hardly wait to hear her comments about the book after reading it.  

A few years ago, a presidential candidate often claimed there was not a dime's worth of difference between the two main political parties in this country and many believed him. Perhaps they are much the same in certain aspects. But Ann Coulter's book will clear the air on that one: she shows the difference in graphic detail. Her summations are backed by scholarly documentary notes which you can check out or leave alone. If you have never known what the French Revolution was all about, here's your chance to find out. And don't overlook its contrast with our American Revolution. Notice my word "contrast." I did not say "compare." There is no comparison between the two, though many would say there is. These people are those who have not learned history. Someone has said, "History repeats itself." Another has added, "but it does not need to." Still someone else has said, "To learn wrong history is to repeat wrong history." All of these ideas are accurate. Read how Coulter handles this important topic. 

Those of you in the Greatest Generation probably read Dickens's A TALE OF TWO CITIES in 10th grade. Dickens was right and the Greatest Generation knows you are not well educated without having studied this classic. This volume would be a good first step to learning what Coulter's book is all about.
THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

In the year (circa) 1802, poet William Worthsworth penned the line "The world is too much with us," and 13 more lines to go with that. For me, it was memory work in junior high, and it has stayed with me. Often, I think of this truth as it applies to my everyday routine. If I thought the dead could spin in their graves or needed to, I'd have Wordsworth getting a speeding ticket. What would he say about our fast world today? It surely would not be pretty.

This "too-much-ness" floods all areas of our lives, so that if we need or desire solitude, we have to scrounge for it, with something like a time clock set for the next interruption which often turns out to be a total break from what we're doing.  How I imagined all the free time I'd have when moving into this lovely retirement community, only to realize later what I was giving up. 

During 2014 to date, I've completed reading only two books! Three and a half months, think of it! Only two books, when I used to average 100 a year. Of course, I've done some writing and that really takes a great deal of time for even a small job, both fiction and things like blogging. (Blogging is by far, not the extent of my nonfiction writing.) I think there must have been 27 and 1/2 hours a day in my previous life, when there was time to read. And also time to sleep. I am almost not sleeping these nights. 

And for those of you not already in the know, let me tell you I have lost the sight of one eye. Yes, truly. It wasn't gradual; it happened overnight. I had mentioned here a black eye I woke up with one morning, perhaps a month ago or a little longer. There was no proof of reason for this occurrence; it did not hurt; and with treatment of a special bruise cream, I kept the black from moving down my face. I think I was probably sleeping on my right side and had no convenient place to rest my arm, and so it went where it wanted to go, apparently right to my eye socket. I might have rubbed the eye in my sleep. Then a couple of weeks ago, I awoke with the ball of my palm stuck tight to that same eye. When I peeled the hand away, the sight in that eye was gone. The retina specialist said he could not reverse it. And now one of those interruptions has just called time.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

NAMING MY STORY

When I write creatively, the title of the work usually comes to me early in the story and does not change. When I finish the piece, the title is just right. With my latest story that was not the case. When I realized no title had manifested itself while the story was in progress, I knew something was wrong with it. I laid it aside to think about that and resumed reading the novel by Joanne Harris, THE GIRL WITH NO SHADOW. The girl in that story had her colors. It seemed no one could see the purples and reds about her person except perhaps other people without shadows like her. Unwittingly, or perhaps unconsciously, I had given my character similar colors, several shades of purple (but no lavender), but not at all used in the same way as the other girl's colors. Innocent as I was, I decided to delete all those colors from my story and did so in about four minutes. 

Instantly the right title came to me! A perfect title. You see, the girl with no shadow was a witch, but my girl was no such thing. In fact, she was a good person who wanted to do things right and went out of her way, literally, righting things.

Why do I say no lavender? My maternal grandmother, over a century ago, wore black and white, and gray, and lavender. Of those four colors, only lavender spelled "old" to me. I do not like it to this day. But orchid is a lovely color. I wear it and I am not a witch.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

KRAUTHAMMER STILL AT THE TOP

Yesterday I heard Krauthammer's THINGS THAT MATTER has been at the top of the Best Selling list for 23 weeks! If you've missed this one, you're the loser.
 DAYS SANS BOOKS

It has been several days since I've read in a book, except the Bible. I am eager to get back to writing about books. That's what this blog is about. But let me tell you one result of my reading my short story last Sunday: we are getting a new sound system for this place, after some of my listeners couldn't hear the story well while others could. I'll read the story for them again but on another day of the week. There is an especially interesting way the title for the story showed up, that will go in the blog when there is time to write it. But I've decided to send the story out to a certain magazine, a literary quarterly, and so, it will not be published onblog. 

Some highly interesting tidbits to appear here for the literary minded. Soon. Keep in touch. ***